


A House Divided

by TheAvengersMascot



Series: All That Matters [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: And possibly some Prozac, Angst, Canon Divergence - Thor: The Dark World, Community: norsekink, Family Drama, Gen, Good Loki, Loki Needs a Hug, Most of the time, Thor Is a Good Bro, but the typos are, characters not mine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 11:13:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 47,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8399494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAvengersMascot/pseuds/TheAvengersMascot
Summary: If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand—Mark 3:25The convergence of realms is approaching, a sight of unparalleled beauty for those able to behold it. Beneath the beauty however, lurks darkness. Unseen at the fringes of Yggdrasil, a threat thought vanquished long ago is rising once again. A threat which will tear the house of Odin apart.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, look at that. I said I'd try to start posting this before the end of the month and I made it! This fic is finished but I'm not sure the chapter breaks will stay as they are, hence the question mark on the chapter count. So, without further ado, here we go.

As his feet touched down in the bifrost observatory, Thor felt a sense of satisfaction. Midgard and all its unique wonders were a joy to explore but there was something about returning to his home that gave him a deep feeling of contentment. He greeted Heimdall, who answered with a taciturn nod, and proceeded out to the bridge. Before him lay all of Asgard, his future dominion. He stopped, taking a moment to remind himself just how extraordinary a place it was. The Realm Eternal, a shining beacon atop Yggdrasil. From this distance, he could see the many raised towers and turrets that filled the city. He imagined the many its many inhabitants who would one day look to him as their leader. In the center of it all stood the gleaming golden towers of Glaðsheim.

Thor's peace dissipated like mist under a hot sun as his gaze settled on the citadel. Although he missed the comfort and familiarity of Asgard when he visited the mortal realm, there was one aspect of his life here that he didn't miss while he was away.

With a sigh, he mounted his horse and rode across the bridge toward his home. A few times along the journey his gaze drifted out to the stars, looking for signs of the coming Convergence. Each time, Thor laughed at his efforts. He was neither a scholar nor a scientist. He had no idea what he was looking for or what it would look like even if he saw it. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but feel a burgeoning excitement for the interstellar event, a phenomenon that was rare even to a race as long-lived as the Aesir. He knew he wasn't the only one intrigued by it. All of Asgard's people waited with eager anticipation for the day Yggdrasil's branches would bend and bring in line all nine realms.

All save one, that is.

One person who had lately become nothing but irritable and impatient, who left the palace staff confused and anxious with his erratic moods and frequent ill-temper. Who grumbled and growled in response to even the most benign inquiries. Who had forsaken all pursuits but the one deemed impossible.

Thor left his horse at the gate, turning the reins over to one of the stable-hands. He made his way inside, determined to confront the one who had lately made himself the bane of everyone's existence. The closer he got to the library, the more harried the servants he passed seemed to be, and Thor knew why. He pushed open the library doors, knowing even before he did what he would find. Or rather, _who_. He knew because no one else dared enter the space of late, not even the library's keepers. 

As expected, the place was empty except for a lone occupant sitting at one of the larger tables. On one end of the table was a stack of books yet to be opened and on the other, a second pile of books already read and discarded. In the middle with his back to the entrance sat the person Thor was looking for, his black hair flowing down over his hunched shoulders.

"Back so soon," Loki called out without turning or even lifting his head. "Tired of your mortal pets already?"

Thor rolled his eyes at the familiar barb. He came to a stop at the end of the table. "Loki, you should not speak of them that way. They are your friends as well, and heroes in their own right. And if I recall, it was your idea that Asgard maintain closer ties with the Midgardians."

"It was, though I didn't imagine you would take that as an excuse to spend all your time on Midgard to the exclusion of your duties here."

"That is a gross exaggeration-"

"Have you even remained here long enough for Father to tell you of the insurrection brewing on Vanaheim?"

"I don't know," Thor replied through clenched teeth. "Have you looked up from those tomes long enough for him to tell you it was quelled weeks ago by my hand?"

Loki's response was nothing more than a distracted hum. Thor sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger while he mentally recalled all the times his mother, father, and even Loki encouraged him to develop patience. He took a slow deep breath in and let it out just as slow. Temper in check once more, he moved around to the other side of the table and pulled out a chair. The scraping of the metal legs across the floor echoed, amplified by the emptiness of the room. Sitting down, he examined his brother from his new vantage point. Loki looked as haggard as the staff his foul mood had chased out from the library. Each eye had a dark smudge beneath and small lines crinkling the skin around them. His lips curled downward into a sullen frown. Even his skin seemed without any lustre. Thor wondered when the last time was his brother slept or ate, or ventured anywhere outside.

Recalling a Midgardian saying having to do with putting one's head in the mouth of a large predator, Thor braced himself to ask, "Have you found anything yet?"

His brother said nothing.

"Loki, do you think..." Thor hesitated, "do you think perhaps the reason you haven't found anything is because there is nothing to find?"

Loki slammed the book before him shut, the thump reverberating throughout the library. "So, you agree with the rest, do you? That I am foolishly wasting my time on a vain search that will turn up nothing?"

Thor held his hands up, palms toward him. "I didn't say that-"

"You didn't have to," Loki cut him off. "My focus may be on other things but I hear what they say about me. The think I'm obsessed, that being dragged through the dark paths by the Tesseract frightened me so terribly that now I jump at shadows and see enemies where none exist."

"No one says-"

"Oh, but they do, brother. It's only that you're too busy off gallivanting with your mortals to pay attention to the whispers of your own people."

"Protecting Midgard is hardly gallivanting."

" _Protecting_ Midgard," Loki scoffed. "Is that what you call whiling away the time with that woman?"

Thor clenched his hand into a fist. "That 'woman' has a name, Loki. She is Doctor Jane Foster and she is one of the most intelligent of Midgard's scientists."

"Hardly an impressive distinction," Loki muttered. He looked away from Thor and reached for another of the sizable volumes on the table.

Patience exhausted, Thor slammed his hand down on the cover, preventing his brother from opening it. "She deserves your respect, brother. Even if she is not here to receive it."

Loki glared at him. He pushed his chair away from the table and got to his feet without breaking his gaze. Placing his hands on the table he leaned forward until he was looming over Thor. When he spoke, it was with a low and dangerous growl.

"Then go back to Midgard and _respect_ her on my behalf. You can leave Asgard's protection to me since you care so much more for your precious mortals than you do your home."

With that, Loki spun on his heel and stalked out of the library, leaving an angry and frustrated Thor behind.

~~~|~~~

Boys fight, and brothers fight more. It was a truth Frigga was too well acquainted with. Her sons were the best of friends but once in a while, one or both of them lost sight of that. They were no longer children in need of their parents' intervention in their petty squabbles, infrequent as they were now that they were grown. Once in a while though, a problem would spark between them that would grow and grow until it caused an explosion. Different though they were, both Thor and Loki were possessed of immense stubbornness. Thor would never take the first step to reconcile if he felt he was wronged. If it was Loki who had taken offence, well he could nurse a grudge longer than anyone Frigga had ever known. More often than not, they would sort things out on their own in time. Other times, they needed someone else to step in and Frigga knew it was time.

She stopped outside the door to Loki's chamber and pressed her palm to it. A light tingle of seiðr brushed against her hand and a moment later, the door swung open on its own, warded as it was to allow entry only to those whom Loki wanted to see. She entered to find him at his desk, his usually impeccable posture changed into an uncharacteristic slouch. Before him on the desk lay a notebook. He held a writing quill in his hand but wasn't putting it to paper.

"How goes your study?" she asked.

"The same as ever."

"So that is the reason for your foul mood, then. I heard your brother wasn't back from Midgard an hour before you two fought again."

Loki sighed. He dropped the quill, leaned back, and scrubbed his face with both hands. "And he came running to you to bear tales, did he? The child."

Frigga crossed the room to better see him. Loki wouldn't meet her eyes, his gaze aimed downward toward his notebook but not truly seeing it. "He came to greet his mother after his lengthy absence, not to tattle. I saw his anger written in every feature of his face but I still had to question him directly before he told me the truth. I didn't realize you held the mortals in such low esteem."

"I didn't realize that would matter to you."

"You were fond of them at one time, Loki."

"Am I not free to change my mind?"

"You are, if it is an honest change," she replied. "But I recall a time not so very long ago when you gleefully regaled me with tales of your exploits with them. You were most intrigued by the man of iron's craftsmanship. And you seemed impressed by Jane Foster's intellect."

"It's _Doctor_ Jane Foster, Mother," Loki said, the words dripping with disdain. "We mustn't forget that or Thor will throw another fit."

"Loki-"

"Mother, please." He looked up at her at last. "Must we speak of this now?"

She frowned. There was more she wished to say but Loki looked so tired. His eyes were bloodshot and hooded from so much reading. He'd spent so many hours indoors scouring for information on the Aether that his complexion was as pale as the white sheets on his bed.

"All right," Frigga relented. "But we will speak of it again."

"Fair enough." Loki said after a weary sigh.

Frigga took one of his hands in hers. "Now, why don't you close your books for a few hours and come to dinner?"

He groaned. "I'm exhausted."

"Loki. Your brother was gone to Midgard for weeks and you've buried yourself in research for far longer. You will put your books aside for one evening and join your family for dinner."

Loki held on to his sullen expression a moment longer before a hint of a smile broke through. "As you wish," he sighed.

~~~|~~~

A joyous reunion it was not. Loki spoke no more than two words and pointedly ignored his brother. Thor, still irked by everything Loki said when they argued, returned the favour by doing the same. Frigga's efforts to encourage their interaction fell utterly flat. Odin tried a different tack, engaging them separately. He urged Thor to relate his latest adventure with the mortals, which he did while Loki yawned loudly every other minute. When Thor was finished, Odin turned to Loki.

"And what about you, Loki? What of your search?"

"It's ongoing," was all he said.

"No progress at all?"

"Not as yet."

"What about Alfheim?"

"It was nothing."

For the first time, Thor acknowledged his brother's presence. "You were on Alfheim brother?" he asked, almost genially.

Loki glowered at him across the table. "Briefly."

"I see. So my efforts defending the mortals are nothing more than frivolous gallivanting but your pointless searches on other realms are, what, the height of importance?"

Loki threw his fork onto his plate with a clatter. "Pointless! What I do is for the safety of all nine realms, which is our duty as Asgardians to uphold. Unlike you, I haven't neglected eight of them in favour of one!"

"I've neglected nothing!"

"Silence! Both of you!" Odin shouted. "I'll not have you poisoning this evening with such bickering. When you are on the sparring grounds, you may snipe at each other as much as you wish but when you sit at this table, you will be civil. Is that clear?"

Though Thor and Loki fell silent, they continued glaring daggers at each other while Odin shook his head at their unseemly display.

Thor answered first but didn't break off glaring. "Yes, Father."

Instead of answering Odin as well, Loki stood up. "Excuse me. I seem to have lost my appetite."

He left without waiting to be dismissed. Odin cast a questioning glance in Frigga's direction. She shook her head.

"Do you see, Mother?" Thor said, pointing the direction his brother went. "He is ever more unreasonable and does nothing but belittle my deeds."

"As you belittled his," she pointed out. "Pointless searches?"

"Your mother is right, Thor," Odin agreed. "Even with one eye, I could see Loki's bitter mood. Did you really think calling his efforts pointless would improve it?"

"Neither of you heard him in the library," Thor objected. "He called our mortal comrades 'pets', he dismissed Jane Foster entirely, and he accused me of ignoring my duties to Asgard when he was so preoccupied with his nonsense study that he didn't know it was I who dealt with the insurrection on Vanaheim."

"And are you a child that you respond to such provocation in kind?" Odin returned.

Thor's face took on a stormy look. "I am no child."

"No, you aren't, which is why you should know that Loki's tongue becomes sharper than his daggers when he is troubled by a problem he cannot solve."

"Why do you make excuses for him?"

"I'm not," Odin said firmly. "Nor am I suggesting he was in the right. But you of all people should have learned to recognize when Loki means what he says and when he is lashing out to provoke you."

Thor took a long slow breath, making an obvious effort to calm himself. "And what of his search for the Aether? It's been nearly a year. Do you not think if there was something to find, he would have done so by now?"

"Perhaps," Frigga said. "Nevertheless, the search is important to him, so it should be important to you."

"You indulge him too much. You both do."

"That is untrue."

"Is it?" Thor replied, his irritation resurfacing. "Remind me, how was it Loki learned what he did about the Tesseract in the first place? Oh, I remember. He stole Erik Selvig's computing device in the middle of negotiating our alliance with Midgard. And was he made to return it? No, that task was left to me, along with convincing them that his flagrant disregard for their laws was not emblematic of our attitude toward them."

"All right, Thor. You've made your point," Odin told him. "Perhaps we have lately given Loki too much latitude but that is for us to correct, not you. Besides, there are greater concerns to attend to. The Convergence is almost upon us and there will be disturbances enough to keep both of you too busy to argue. Until then, try and exercise some restraint in dealing with your brother."

"And I will tell him to do the same," Frigga put in before Thor could protest about being singled out.

Though it sounded somewhat grudging, Thor promised, "I'll do my best."

~~~|~~~

After finding his rooms to be empty, Frigga knew where to look for Loki next. There was only one other place in the palace her son thought of as a refuge, a place he went to find peace. She entered the library, pausing as she crossed the threshold. The lamps had all been extinguished, leaving the only light coming from the moon outside. Loki must be here, she knew. Only he would do such a thing.

Frigga found him easily. With no other light sources, her eyes were naturally drawn to the windows. Loki sat in one of the window seats, his knees drawn up in front of him and his arms wrapped around them. It never ceased to amaze her how small he could make himself when he wanted to. His face was turned out toward the sky but he heard her approach.

"I almost never just look at them anymore," he said.

"The stars?"

"Mm."

Frigga joined him at the window, sitting on the other end of the seat. The moon cast a pale light over Loki, making his already wan complexion look even more sickly.

"It's good to do so now and again to remind ourselves of the beauty of Yggdrasil."

Loki frowned at the mention of the world tree. "The Convergence is mere days away and I am yet no closer to the Aether."

She sighed. The question had to be asked though she knew what his reaction was likely to be. "Loki, is there a chance you might be wrong about it?"

With the moonlight shining on them, Loki's pale hands fairly glowed where they emerged from his sleeves and rested against his dark clothing. Illuminated as they were, Frigga saw them tighten in response to her question.

"Not you too, Mother," he groaned.

"Loki-"

"I'm not wrong," Loki cut her off, anger bleeding into his tone. "I'm not wrong, or obsessed, or mad, or whatever you all think."

Frigga fixed him with a hard look. "My son, please do me the kindness of not telling me what I am thinking. I was not even implying any of what you said. I believe, as you do, that the Aether was not destroyed. But Loki, if one as clever as you and as dedicated to the search as you are could look for an entire year and find nothing, is it not possible that Bor's precautions were enough to keep it hidden?"

Loki didn't answer. At least, the answer he gave was not in response to her. He turned his gaze out the window once more and jutted his chin toward the city below. "They think I am."

"What?"

"All of Asgard. They think I am a fool who's lost his mind to be worried about the consequences of a war fought five thousand years ago."

"They think no such thing, Loki."

"You know that for a fact, do you?" he said, still looking out and away from her.

Frigga reached over and placed her hand on his arm to get his attention. "Yes, I do. For one thing, the ultimate goal of your quest is known only to a few, so there is no chance the entire realm has an opinion on it. For another, it is not your preoccupation with the Aether that has bewildered everyone. Rather it is that their charming, silver-tongued prince has been replaced by an abrasive, volatile wretch with moods as changeable as the wind, and they know not how or why. They are baffled by you, Loki. Nothing more sinister."

Her son still wouldn't look at her, choosing instead to focus on the hand she laid upon him. "Thor knows the truth. He knows, and yet he treats it as if it is nothing."

"Even you must admit you provoked him into saying so."

"It's not just-" Loki caught himself and took a breath before starting again at a calmer pitch. "It's not just what he says. He spends his every spare moment on Midgard, shirking his responsibilities here. How can he not see that the fate of the entire universe is more important than a single realm?"

"Your brother has not been shirking anything," Frigga told him. "He's fulfilled his duties here before journeying to Midgard each time, with the permission of the All-Father and in accord with the alliance agreement _you_ helped broker. And let us not forget how you have devoted yourself entirely to your search for the Aether to the exclusion of all else, including Thor. What else would you have him do?"

Loki merely shrugged in reply but his eyes strayed over to the book shelves.

"Do you want his aid in finding the Aether?" Frigga asked, a disbelieving smile upon her lips. "Loki, be honest. Would you truly wish him at your side for hours on end in the library, you who prefers silence and solitude when you study?"

His sighed and looked back out the window without speaking. Frigga let the silence linger, using the time to regard him. Loki was grown and possessed of immense power and intellect, yet at times all Frigga could see was the quiet withdrawn boy from her memories. The one who so desired his father's and brother's approval despite doing his best to give every sign to the contrary.

Loki broke the silence before she did. "Thor would be a terrible research partner."

"Indeed, he is far too restless," Frigga agreed. "You'd have to shackle him to the chair to make him sit still."

The barest hint of a smile appeared on Loki's face.

"My son," she went on, "Thor may not share your zeal but I know he doesn't believe what you're doing is unimportant. He wouldn't have sought you out here as his first stop upon returning if he didn't care. It's only that you make it difficult to remember why he should."

" _I_ make it difficult?" he replied, affronted.

Frigga raised an eyebrow at him. "'Mortal pets'? 'That woman'? You are too artful with words to claim that was a slip of the tongue. You know the fastest way to spark Thor's temper is to demean that which he cares about and yet you deliberately provoked him by doing just that. Is it any wonder that he loses sight of the more important things when you aggravate him so?"

Loki heaved a weary sigh. Raking his hands through his hair, he said, "I know. I don't even know why I did it."

"Because you've spent your every waking hour doing nothing but this for a year and you're exhausted. A tired mind doesn't make sound decisions."

There was another reason Frigga suspected why Loki took such exception to Thor spending so much time away but she kept it to herself. Voicing it now would only put him on the defensive again. Perhaps another time, when he was not so worn out she would raise the subject with him. Instead, she got to her feet and extended her hand toward him.

"Come," she said. "You've earned a good night's rest."

"I really should get back to work," he protested.

"No, no more work tonight. It will do no one any good if you are too sleepy to see the words that are before your eyes. Rest now. The books will still be here in the morning."

"But I-"

"Loki, please. Leave them alone for one night and go to bed. Even if you can't sleep, at least allow yourself to rest. As a favour to me."

That last was a bit of a cheat, Frigga knew. Neither of her sons had strength enough to resist an entreaty such as that when it came from her.

"All right," Loki predictably acquiesced.

Frigga smothered the urge to smile watching him unfold himself from the window seat. Taking her proffered arm, they made their way out of the library together.

~~~|~~~

Out in the bifrost observatory, Heimdall turned his attention away from Glaðsheim and out toward the cosmos. As guardian, it was his duty to be on alert for any threat to Asgard, including those that might come from within. A bit of turmoil between the princes was nothing new but if it were to grow into something more, if their discord began to spread beyond the two of them to the rest of the Aesir, it could be the beginning of a civil war. The king and queen had things well in hand but even so, Heimdall knew the course of wisdom was to keep on alert for any more signs of trouble.

Looking outward again, he watched the realms draw ever closer. The Convergence was beauty and chaos entwined, and a sight not seen since before his watch began. The chance to see it all was thrilling, even if he made no outward show of it.

Many in Asgard referred to him as all-seeing but that was not accurate. He could see anything, but not everything and certainly not all at once. There were things in the universe he simply could not see, pockets of darkness into which he could not peer even with his extraordinary sight.

In one such place, an artifact began to stir, awakened by the unusual forces brought on by the Convergence. In another rests a ship, its crew and leader held in stasis, their long sleep soon to end. When it does, a darkness not seen for five millennia will threaten every life in the universe. But not before it tears a family apart.


	2. Chapter 2

In her flat in London, Jane Foster stood with her mobile phone pressed to her ear. Like her four previous attempts, the call went to voicemail.

"Hi, Erik. It's me again. I'm getting those readings almost constantly now and you're still not here. I don't know where you are but if you aren't here soon, I'm going to go check them out before they disappear like the others. Call me when you get this."

She pressed the button to end the call and shoved the phone into her pocket. At the same time, her front door opened and Darcy walked in, holding the door open for a guy she didn't recognize whose arms were full of bags that Jane assumed contained breakfast if the tray of coffee cups in Darcy's hand was any indication.

"Good grief, don't you ever sleep?" she said by way of greeting.

"Good morning to you too," Jane replied. "And of course I slept. Why do you think I didn't?"

"You were wearing the exact same outfit yesterday." Darcy looked over her shoulder. "Intern, breakfast goes on the counter. Cutlery is in the drawer beside the sink."

Jane looked down at herself. Was she wearing the same clothes? She couldn't actually remember if she'd gotten them from the closet or just picked them up from the floor. She was trying hard enough to remember that it was a moment before Jane registered what else her friend said. "Intern?"

Darcy flopped into one of the kitchen chairs while the guy set about following her directions. "Yeah. I have an intern now."

"Since when do you need an intern?"

"Since SHIELD started footing the bill for your research and we actually have some payola."

Jane glanced over to where the intern was busy unpacking various baked goods. "So, you're paying him."

"Uh, no. Interns don't get paid," Darcy answered as if it should have been obvious.

"But you're my intern."

"And?"

"And I pay you."

Darcy held up a finger. "Nope. Technically SHIELD pays me."

"Yeah, because I told them to. It's not fair to... I'm sorry what's your name?"

The guy looked up. "Ian. Ian Boothby. It's an honour to be working with you, Doctor Foster."

"It's not fair to make Ian work for free when you're getting paid for the same job."

"Don't worry," Darcy said. "It's not like he's going hungry or anything. I feed him at least twice a day."

Jane crossed her arms with an exasperated sigh. "He's not a pet, Darcy. He's a human being with human expenses. I'm sure you've got bills to pay, right Ian?"

Ian ducked his head somewhat sheepishly. "Um, well, I live with my parents so not really, no."

Darcy cocked an eyebrow. "See?"

"Oh my god," Jane muttered under her breath. "Look, I'll talk to SHIELD about getting him on the payroll but if they say no, you've got to cut him loose so he can get a real job."

"Actually, if it's all right with you I'd like to stay on either way," Ian spoke up, stepping over to the table. "I'm a fan of your work, Doctor. I don't mind working for free."

Jane looked at Darcy who was wearing an obnoxiously smug grin. "Fine. Just make sure Darcy remembers to buy you lunch."

She crossed the room to the counter when Ian had laid out their breakfast options. Everything was either drenched in frosting or filled with chocolate. Clearly Darcy's idea of breakfast food was anything with enough sugar to give someone a cavity after three bites. Jane picked out a chocolate croissant and snatched the coffee cup that had her name scrawled on the side, mentally bracing herself for the probable stomach ache that would result from a breakfast of only sugar and caffeine. She was only one bite into her food when her scanner went off again.

"Whoa. What was that?" Darcy asked, craning her neck to look at the device.

"I don't know yet," Jane replied. She set her food down and picked up the scanner, careful not to touch the display with her sticky fingers. "I started picking up these readings early this morning. I've never seen anything like them outside of the Einstein-Rosen bridge."

"So it's like the rainbow bridge thingy?"

"They're similar but not exactly the same. The Einstein-Rosen bridge-"

"Why don't you just call it the bifrost? It's way shorter."

"-is an intergalactic pathway. It's focused and controlled. This is something else. It's like the laws of physics just randomly cease to exist in places. I was waiting for Erik to get here so we can go check it out, see if it has anything to do that alignment theory he's been going on about."  

"Cool," Darcy replied, reaching across the table and tearing off a piece of Jane's croissant. "Road trip."

Jane let that pass without comment. The three of them ate breakfast while they waited for Erik. The new intern carried the dishes for all three of them to the sink when they finished and returned to the table where Darcy patted his head like a dog. Jane did a double take sent her a look which Darcy answered with a shrug. Her intern was clearly enjoying having her own gofer to boss around, which was fine as long as she didn't take it too far. Not that Darcy was a bully or anything, just that she didn't always think things through and the guy seemed so eager to please that he'd do just about anything they asked without question. Put those two things together and it could lead to all sorts of trouble.

All through their meal, Jane kept one eye on her scanner, which trilled often, and another eye on her phone, which remained dead silent. Once she finished eating, Jane started chewing on her fingernails, getting more and more antsy to get out there and see what was going on. After another phone call went unanswered, she decided to call it.

"All right. We can't wait any more."

"We ridin' out?" Darcy asked, edging forward in her seat.

"Yeah."

"Finally. Intern, come."

"His name is Ivan," Jane reminded her, scooping her scanner off the table.

"Um... it's, uh, Ian... actually," Ian corrected her in a typically English fashion. That is to say, apologetically.

"Right. That's what I said," Jane answered, eyes focused on the screen. "Come on. We need to head west."

The drive through London was chaotic as it tended to be with Darcy behind the wheel. Despite her insistence that she'd, "Totally mastered driving in London", Jane was sure she'd felt her heart stop at least twice on the trip.

"This is it. Turn here," Jane directed.

Darcy took the turn at a speed that would make a Formula One driver proud and followed it with a stop so sudden it had all of them testing the tensile strength of their seat belts. Darcy shut the engine off and hopped out but Jane was a bit slower to unfold her tense posture and start moving again.

"Come on, granny," Darcy called out from the other side of the car. "You're holding up the show."

"If you hadn't driven like Mad Max on speed, I wouldn't be moving like this." 

"Oh, come on. We've got something to do, finally. This is exciting. Look, even the intern is excited."

Ian, who had been looking around with a gleeful smile turned to Darcy. "Ian," he corrected with a slight nod.

Darcy more or less ignored him. "You want the phasemeter?"

"No," Jane replied, bending forward to put her hands on her knees and take a few deep breaths.

Darcy turned to Ian and tossed him the keys. "Bring the phasemeter. It's the toaster looking thing."

"I know what the phasemeter is," he muttered, a little put out.

Jane shook her head and straightened up, which is when something caught her eye. The scanner led them to an empty industrial park, complete with abandoned shipping containers. The containers themselves weren't unusual, but the fact that they were stacked in a way they had no business being stacked was. There were two separate pairs of them, each standing on end. For each pair, a third container lay across the two upright ones, like some kind of tribute to Stonehenge. Jane didn't realize she was staring at the strange sight until the scanner went off again, drawing her focus back to why they were there to begin with. Looking at the screen, she oriented herself in the direction of the readings.

"Come on. This way."

The three of them approached one of the empty buildings. It had been a warehouse before its abandonment, with a peaked glass roof and a set of huge doors large enough to accommodate trucks. Once inside, the sound of their footsteps echoing off the walls disturbed a pair of pigeons, the beat of their wings an ominous soundtrack to their procession. The pigeons in turn disturbed someone else. From deeper in the building, the trio heard the sound of more footsteps.

"I am not getting stabbed in the name of science," Darcy declared. She raised her hands and called out, "It's okay, we're Americans."

"Is that supposed to make them like us?" Jane hissed.

Before Darcy could answer, a few curious faces peeked out from around the nearest corner. Two boys and a girl. One of the boys and the girl shared similar features and Jane wondered if they were siblings.

"Are you the police?" the girl asked.

"No," Jane told her in her best non-threatening voice. "We're scientists. Well, I am."

"Oh, thanks," Darcy murmured. Jane rolled her eyes.

One of the boys spoke up. "We didn't do anything. We just found it."

"Found what?" Jane asked, intrigued. "Can you show me?"

The three kids exchanged a wary look.

"I promise, you won't get in trouble."

After a bit of silent consultation with each other, the children nodded. They led Jane and the interns into another wing of the building. Jane's jaw fell open in amazement. In the middle of the large space was a cement truck. A cement truck that was floating, actually _floating_ , like it was suspended from invisible wires. It was one thing to see indications of anomalies on her scanner but it was something else altogether seeing it with her own eyes. Her heart thudded in her chest, the thrill of discovery speeding up its tempo.

The other boy, who up until then had hung in the background, now took the lead. He went straight up to the hovering truck. Placing just three fingers under the front bumper, he lifted the truck even higher. With just a slight turn of his wrist, he set the heavy vehicle rotating like it was on an invisible spit.

"That doesn't seem right," Darcy blurted. "Cement doesn't float."

The girl grinned. "That's not even the best part," she said. "Come on."

The young trio led them to a stairwell that went up to the highest part of the warehouse, startling a few more pigeons as they climbed. Telling the adults to wait, one of the boys climbed a few landings higher before stopping. There, he leaned over the rail and dropped his half-full bottle of soda over the edge. _What's so extraordinary about that,_ she wondered. Obviously gravity was working as normal in this part of the building and-

The bottle vanished, derailing Jane's thought midstream. "Wait, where'd it go?" she exclaimed.

The boy's sister pointed up to the broken skylight above them. Jane looked up just in time to catch sight of the bottle reappearing overhead. It fell down through the space and disappeared at the same spot as before. Three more times it fell, picking up speed each time as it would if it were falling from an extreme height. On the fourth trip, the other boy reached out and caught it.

"That's incredible," Jane breathed, her mind spinning with the possibilities. She looked around, and found an empty soda can to drop. Like the bottle, it too disappeared, but when she looked up to wait for it, it never reappeared. "What happened?"

The little girl shrugged. "Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't."

"I wanna try," Darcy said. "Jane, gimme your shoe."

Jane didn't answer because her scanner went crazy in her pocket. She fished it out and checked the display. Her heart sped up even more. Now it was showing almost the exact same readings as when the Einstein-Rosen bridge connected to Earth. This could be the breakthrough she needed to create a stable bridge without Asgard's help. If what she was seeing was accurate, there was an interdimensional portal right there in the warehouse. Her soda can might have landed on another planet!

Only, the readings on her device weren't coming from the stairwell. Perplexed, she started walking the direction they appeared to originate from.

"Don't touch anything," Jane called out over her shoulder without tearing her eyes from the display.

The scanner led her away and into another section of the building. She stopped once to check on the others before she left their sight. All five of them were taking turns dropping items down through the portal, the interns fitting right in with the kids. A frantic beeping drew her attention back to her device. The readings were off the scale, almost as if a bridge was about to open right on top of her. There was none of the telltale atmospheric disturbances of the Einstein-Rosen bridge, however. Something else was happening.

Jane walked the direction the scanner indicated. All of a sudden, she was almost yanked off her feet. Her rubber boots slid across the concrete, giving no resistance as something pulled her body forward. The unseen force dragged her down the corridor as though the direction of gravity had shifted ninety degrees. She stumbled through an open door at the end and into another dark room.

She turned around back the direction she came but she couldn't see the door at all anymore. She called out, "Darcy?"

The sound. Something about the sound of her voice was wrong.

Jane called Darcy's name again and listened as it echoed. It didn't sound like the brick walls of the warehouse. In fact, it sounded much too large to be inside any building.

She faced the direction the gravity distortion had pulled her and found her eyes were adjusting to the light. With each cautious step forward, she could make out more and more of her surroundings. It was definitely not the warehouse. She was in a cave. No, more like a cavern. The space was monstrous, so much so that when she reached the edge of the outcropping she stood on, she couldn't see the bottom below.

"Okay. So, not in Kansas anymore."

Looking back the direction she came again now that she was used to the dark, Jane saw no sign of the door or anything that looked like the warehouse.

"It was another portal," she said aloud to no one. And going by the readings she saw before she got sucked into it... "I'm on another planet."

For a scientist, the idea should have been amazing. For a someone who had devoted most of her career to the theory that interstellar travel by means of wormholes was possible, it should have been beyond amazing. Perhaps if Jane had made the journey deliberately, she might be able to appreciate the enormity of what just happened. She might have been awed by the fact the she could be the first human to set foot wherever she was. She'd have been brimming with excitement at the thought of the amazing discoveries she could make there and bringing that knowledge back home. It was exactly the kind of thing she dreamed about ever since childhood.

But reality wasn't what she dreamed. She had no idea where she was or how she got there. And the scanner, her only hope of finding the portal she passed through again, was gone. She flexed the fingers of her now empty hand as she gazed at her surroundings.

"Okay, Janie. Don't freak out," she told herself. "Work the problem."

She looked around for anything that might shed any light on her predicament and something did. Quite literally. Across from where she stood was a pillar, a massive square piece of stone jutting up from the ground. And something around the middle of it was glowing.

The pillar, which looked a man-made object, was totally out of place in a what seemed like an otherwise untouched natural environment. Jane went to take a closer look, noting that the stone of the pillar didn't match the cavern. But that wasn't the only odd thing. What she initially mistook for a band of red light encircling the pillar was actually a gap. The pillar was in two pieces, the separation between them just about Jane's eye level. She couldn't see anything holding the two sections apart but they were definitely separate and the source of the red glow was definitely inside the gap.

Her eyes narrowing, she placed her hands on the side of the pillar and leaned close, peering into the space. A red viscous liquid hovered inside, floating like it was in zero gravity. A prickling sensation travelled down her spine and Jane had the rather unnerving feeling that while she was watching the red thing, it was doing the same to her.

Without warning, the it lunged at her like a viper. It wrapped around one of her hands, pinning her in place. She tried in vain to jerk free but couldn't. All she could do was watch in horror as it seeped into her skin until every last bit of it was inside her. Only then could she move. She yanked her hand away from the pillar, almost falling to the ground with the motion. The top half of the pillar slammed down onto the bottom half but Jane hardly noticed the crash as she frantically scrubbed at the skin of her right arm with her other hand. She could still see the red stuff glowing under her skin, could feel it crawling through her veins. A queasy feeling swept over her as she stumbled away from the pillar, desperate for a way out. The next second, everything went black.

~~~|~~~

It was a scant few days after his return that Thor began to grow restless. Before spending time on Midgard, he never noticed the slower pace of life in the Realm Eternal. Aesir lives were long, and therefore unhurried. By contrast, mortal lives passed in what felt like the blink of an eye, yet they filled each moment with more living than Thor ever thought possible. It was exhilarating being among them. The exploits of his fellow Avengers in particular were always an adventure, and so unlike what he was accustomed to. But they were not the only Midgardians dominating his thoughts of late.

Thor smiled as he pictured the petite scientist who captured his attention while he strolled through the halls of his home. Jane Foster was a jewel among her people. A mortal who was fascinated by the workings of Yggdrasil before she knew what it was, who understood the workings of the bifrost better than Thor ever would. Who rivalled even his brother's intelligence.

His smile fell at the thought of his brother. Though Thor promised their mother he would be more understanding of Loki's moods, he had yet to actually seek his brother out since their quarrel at the dining table. He rationalized his avoidance by telling himself it was that he was waiting until he could be sure he had patience enough to deal with him. That was part of it, true. The greater part, one that he didn't want to admit to, was that he was still cross with his brother and was choosing not to see or speak to him. In fairness, Loki had not sought him out either, so the feeling was at least partly mutual. Either that or Loki was using distance and silence to punish him for... well, Thor wasn't sure. Their interchange over dinner earned him a certain amount of spite but Loki's moods were mercurial well before then and Thor was stumped as to the cause. His brother was a mystery on the best days and there hadn't been many of those in recent times.

Not since before they recovered the Tesseract.

Thor's steps came to a halt. Now why had he never made that correlation before? It seemed as obvious as the sun in the sky now that he had. Things changed after the incident with the Tesseract. Loki himself mentioned something to that effect, hadn't he? He said some believed his tumble between the branches of Yggdrasil had scarred him in some way. Thor hadn't paid any attention to such murmurs, knowing Loki learned to traverse similar paths while still a youth. Surely the simple fact that this time the journey was initiated by the Tesseract should not be enough to prompt such a shift in his brother.

And yet...

Thor remembered the sight of his brother upon finding him inside the SHIELD facility. Loki hadn't looked well at all, was even injured, though he tried to deny it at first. Could it be that the effects of being pulled to Midgard by the Tesseract weren't as easy to disregard as Loki claimed? It took an obvious physical toll. Could it not have taken a mental toll as well?

The question burned in Thor's mind the rest of the day, aching to come out his mouth, but he didn't voice it. To question Loki about such a thing when his temper was this volatile was to risk losing a hand or some other vital body part. Perhaps that was exaggeration but nevertheless, whatever form Loki's retribution took, it was sure to be unpleasant. Thor could find his cape catching fire at random intervals or that Mjolnir's handle was as slippery as an eel. He might wake to find his hair and beard changed to some ridiculous colour or partake of a meal of fine delicacies only to find everything tasted like dirt. One could never be sure when the revenge would stop either. Loki's capacity for vindictiveness was greater than anyone else Thor knew.

He sighed in frustration. Speculating on Loki's behaviour accomplished nothing except giving him a headache. The only way to know what troubled his brother was to ask him directly, which might just lead to another kind of pain.

Thor looked out over the city, pondering what to do. In the distance, he could just see a spire on top of a golden dome. Before he was aware he was moving, he set off in that direction.

Inside the gleaming gold observatory stood Heimdall at his station gazing out at the stars.

"You're late," the terse guardian said before Thor could greet him.

"Late for what?"

"It's been three days since your return. Every other time, you have waited only one day before coming to inquire after a certain mortal scientist." Heimdall paused, turning his head slightly to regard Thor from the corner of his eye. "Or have you come seeking answers about your brother?"

Thor shook his head with a rueful smile. "Am I to have no secrets from you?"

"No," Heimdall replied dryly. "But nor does anyone else in Asgard. So take heart, my prince. You are not alone your plight."

Thor came to stand beside him, looking out through the opening through which Heimdall observed the cosmos. Each time he did, he wondered what the guardian saw through his unique eyes. To be able to see all nine realms with their trillions of souls was something Thor couldn't begin to comprehend.

"How fare the stars?"

"Still shining. The Convergence approaches." Heimdall twisted his sword in the pedestal and the observatory began to turn, widening the viewing space. "The universe hasn't seen this marvel since before my watch began. It's effects may be dangerous, but it is truly beautiful."

"I see nothing," Thor admitted. To him, the stars appeared no different than the hundreds of other times he stood in that very spot.

"You will, my prince. But perhaps that is not the beauty that you seek."

A jest from him was as rare an occurrence as the Convergence itself and it was a moment before Thor recognized the comment for what it was. He stared at first before a brief laugh bubbled up and out his mouth. Still smiling, he turned his eyes back to the stars, trying to find Midgard and its corner of the galaxy among them. Heimdall was right, of course. Though Thor's journey to the mortal realm was mere days ago, there hadn't been time to see her then. Jane's research had taken her to another continent and the Avengers needed his help elsewhere. The separation left his heart with an unfamiliar ache.

"How is she?"

"She's quite clever, your mortal," Heimdall said with hint of admiration. "She doesn't know it yet but she studies the Convergence as well. Even..." He trailed off and took a step closer to the observation window, his eyes narrowing.

"What is it?" Thor asked, hand instinctively finding Mjolnir's handle.

Heimdall's voice was grave. "I cannot see her."

~~~|~~~

Far beyond the sight of even the all-seeing Heimdall, Jane Foster floated on a crimson sea. Such a peculiar dream, she thought. While she slept on, others awoke. A derelict ship and its inhabitants came to life. For the first time in five thousand years, Malekith opened his eyes.

Their time had finally come. The Aether had awoken. At long last, darkness will fall.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know if you see any mistakes. I'm so tired today I'll never catch them myself.

Jane opened her eyes slowly, feeling like her eyelids resisted each millimetre. Her bedroom was a lot fuzzier than she remembered. Her pillow was a lot harder too. And something painfully bright shone in her eyes.

With a few more arduous blinks, things came into focus. The first thing she made out was a cracked glass roof that was most certainly not her bedroom ceiling.

_The warehouse,_  she realized, cobwebs starting to clear. _The warehouse, and floating trucks, and-_

She sat up with a start, making everything around her spin like a carnival ride. Ignoring the surge of dizziness, she yanked up the sleeve of her jacket and frantically examined the skin of her arm. There was no glow, no sign of creepy quasi-sentient substances invading her body. There was no sign at all that those unsettling images were anything more than a sugar induced dream.

"Okay," she sighed. "No more chocolate croissants for breakfast."

Taking it slow out of consideration for her still spinning head, Jane got to her feet. She raked her hands through her hair, dragging out a few leaves. It was quiet enough that she heard them hit the floor. That was strange. She wasn't that far away from the stairwell but she couldn't hear the kids laughing anymore.

"Darcy?" she shouted down the empty corridor. "Darcy?"

No one answered. Jane retraced her steps but there was no sign of Darcy or the intern... what was his name? She searched her memory but came up dry. Whoever he was, he was nowhere in sight and neither was Darcy. Jane felt a bit irked that they not only left her behind but ignored her long enough to not even notice she passed out.

Heading back down the stairs to the main floor, she saw what looked like the soda bottle the kids had been dropping through the portal laying on the ground. Either the portal closed or they lost interest.

Something red flashed in front of her eyes and Jane stopped, eyes flitting down to her arm again. Still no red glow but even so, she shuddered. She'd have to find out what bakery Darcy got their breakfast from and tell her never to go there again, not if a single croissant could give her the trippiest dreams ever.

Another light flashed in her eyes but this one was blue and she was reasonably sure it came from outside, not from her own imagination. She went to the nearest window and couldn't believe what she saw. Dizziness forgotten, she raced outside.

"What did you do?" she demanded.

Darcy spun around. "Jane!" She rushed to meet her. "Where the hell were you?"

"Tell me you didn't call the police."

"What was I supposed to do?"

"Not call the police?" Jane suggested.

"I was freaking out," Darcy explained.

A clap of thunder rumbled in the distance.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Jane said, pointing at the police officers.

"Jane-"

"We had a stable gravitational anomaly, we had unimpeded access."

"Jane-"

A rain cloud opened up over the parking lot.

"Now there's no way to keep SHIELD from Area 51'ing this place and looking over our shoulders the whole time and-"

"Jane, you were gone for five hours!" Darcy exclaimed.

That brought her up short. "What?"

"Yeah."

Darcy looked as confused as Jane felt and for a moment all they did was stare at each other. Five hours? How could she have been missing for five hours? There was no way unless-

A crack of thunder over their heads interrupted Jane's train of thought. She glanced up at the sky, then over Darcy's shoulder and noticed that while they were standing in the middle of a downpour, neither of them were getting wet.

"That's weird," Darcy said. She noticed it too.

Movement off to the side drew Jane's eye. Someone stepped around the upended shipping containers, someone who definitely didn't look like a cop. Jane's heart skipped a beat, then took off at a thousand miles an hour. The sight of Thor Odinson tended to do that. She trotted over to him as though drawn by a magnet. Left behind, Darcy found herself suddenly drenched by rain.

"What are you doing here?" Jane said to him. "I thought you had to go home and do... princely stuff."

Thor responded with a genuine but tight smile that didn't reach his worried eyes. "Where were you? Heimdall could not see you."

"I was..." She was about to say _here_  but that wasn't true, not when Darcy claimed she was gone for five hours.

"Hey!" Darcy shouted before Jane could say anything else. She held a jacket over her head to protect her from the rain. "Is this you?"

Thor glanced up at the clouds and the rain stopped all at once, like someone turning off a faucet.

"Cool. Thanks." Darcy gave him a thumbs up.

"Um, we're kind of in the middle of something here," Jane told Darcy, hoping she'd take the hint.

"Um," Darcy parroted. "I'm pretty sure we're getting arrested."

"Right. Cops." In the wake of Thor's arrival, Jane forgot about them. "Hang on."

Jane ran over to the nearest patrol car where the intern getting frisked by an officer. She really was going to have to learn his name, especially if working for her got him in this kind of trouble.

"Are you Jane Foster?" another officer asked.

"Yes."

"Do you know this man?"

"He's my intern. Well, my intern's intern," she explained. The officer didn't look impressed.

"This is private property and you're trespassing, the lot of you. You're going to have to come with me."

He reached for her arm but the moment he touched her, Jane felt something explode out of her chest. A flood of red filled her vision and the next thing she knew, she was flat on her back with an anxious looking Thor hovering over her.

"Are you all right?" he asked, helping her to sitting. She nodded.

"What just happened?"

One of the police officers, a young and rather green looking man, approached them cautiously. He held one hand out toward her while the other clutched his baton. Jane looked past him and saw the windows of the police cars and her own car were shattered. Every single one.

"What the hell?" she muttered. Did she do that? Did that mean... oh, no. It wasn't a dream.

The officer kept approaching. "Place your hands on your head and step back."

Thor stepped in front of her. "This woman is unwell."

"She's dangerous."

"So am I," Thor growled.

Jane heard the officer start speaking into his radio but she couldn't pay much attention because Thor wrapped his arms around her. Despite the extreme weirdness of the situation, she felt a little shiver of excitement run down her spine at the feel of those godly arms surrounding her.

"Hold on to me," he murmured into her ear.

Jane couldn't even finish the word, 'why' before there was a colossal boom and a mighty lurch yanked the two of them off the ground, surrounding them with rainbow tinted light. She peered around Thor's gigantic bicep and saw what looked like stars whipping past them like snowflakes in a blizzard. The wind buffeting her ears was almost deafening. The tiny part of her brain that was still focused enough to wonder about such things wondered why she could hear anything at all in the vacuum of space. The rest was revelling in the idea that she was experiencing something no one else from Earth ever had. It was her theories come to life and the ride was incredible! No amusement park ride could ever match this, she thought. Although, it was was entirely possible the fact that she was holding onto Thor's chest instead of a safety bar influenced her opinion on the matter.

Something like a sonic boom cracked around them and their speed seemed to double. Jane clung tighter to Thor. The fact that he was totally at ease told her that was normal but still, just beyond the rainbows surrounding them was open space. If she somehow ended up outside of it, she'd be dead in seconds.

In the blink of an eye, the rainbows gave way to gold everywhere she looked, and Jane found herself taking a few running steps on solid ground. She hadn't even felt the deceleration but there was no question they'd arrived. A wide grin spread across her face. Unlike getting dragged through the portal, this trip was on purpose, and she was free to marvel at the fact that she was the first human to traverse an Einstein-Rosen bridge to another world.

"We have to do that again," she said to Thor. She turned back to look at him but on the way, her attention was snagged by an imposing figure with a golden horned helmet and an impressively large sword. "Oh. Hi."

"Welcome to Asgard, Jane Foster," the man, who could only be Heimdall, greeted her.

Jane gulped. The words were ones of welcome but his tone definitely didn't match it. Her amazement over everything began to wane and a creeping sense of anxiety settled in her gut. Just what had she gotten herself into?

~~~|~~~

Loki was fuming. He couldn't believe the gall of his brother. First he dismissed the importance of finding the Aether and now he insisted Loki abandon the search to come aid one of his ailing mortal friends. And he didn't even have the courtesy to come himself! He sent a messenger to fetch Loki, as if he was nothing more than a common servant at the prince's beck and call. As if he didn't have infinitely more important things to do. If he could not find any clues in Asgard's history as to the Aether's location or some means of tracing its energy through seiðr, one wounded mortal would be the least of all their problems.

As he stalked toward the healing room, his irritation only increased. He had no idea what Thor thought he could contribute to the situation. His own rudimentary training in the healing arts was nothing compared with Eir's skill. If this mortal was already in the healing room, they were already in the most capable hands Asgard had to offer. What in the Nine did Thor think Loki could do that they couldn't? Likely as not, he would just be in the way.

Passing through the entrance to the healing room, Loki saw the amber light of the soul forge and fought to quell another surge of anger. Clearly the mortal was already being cared for and Thor still made him come.

"It seems I am too late, brother," Loki said, crossing his arms as Thor turned his direction. "I have nothing to offer that Eir hasn't already done, I'm sure. I shall return to matters of true importance."

Or so he would have, had Thor not seized him by the arm. "Loki, please. She's ill."

Loki tried to twist his arm free but his brother's grip was a vice around his elbow. "Of course she's ill. She's mortal. It's what they..."

He trailed off, examining the worry in Thor's eyes. The message hadn't identified the mortal in question. Loki had assumed it was one of Thor's martial compatriots, the so-called Avengers, most of whom were male. But Thor said, 'she'. And for someone not inclined to ever show fear, it was rather plain on his brother's face.

"She?" Loki asked, though he was sure he knew the answer.

"It's Jane," Thor confirmed.

"And you thought the object of your infatuation more important than my work?" Loki tried again to pull free, if only so he could throttle his brother. 

"This _is_  important. She is very ill."

"Then why didn't you turn her over to Midgard's healers? They do have them, you know. They're called doctors, and I'm sure they are far more versed in human afflictions than any in Asgard."

"This is not a human affliction."

"Boys?" Jane spoke up from behind Thor.

"I suppose you know that from your extensive and intimate study of their species," Loki retorted with disgust. "After all, you do little else these days."

"Boys," Jane tried again.

"Of what great use is burying your head in books searching for signs of an artifact that doesn't exist?" Thor shot back. "Perhaps the people are right. You have gone mad."

Loki's jaw fell open in shock, Thor's accusation ringing in his ears. He well knew his brother's opinion on whether or not the Aether existed but to hear him agree with the rumours of his supposed madness cut him far deeper than he thought it would.

"You son of a-"

_"Silence!"_  Odin's voice reverberated around the chamber in such a way that it had to be bolstered by seiðr. "If you insist on behaving with all the manners of wild boars I will cast you out the window and down to the sparring grounds so that you may scuffle in the dirt as they do."

Though obeying required that he clench his jaw so hard his teeth creaked under the strain, Loki held his tongue. Thor did the same.

"Now calmly, and one at a time, tell me what is the matter."

Loki withdrew his arm from Thor's now slack grip and crossed it with the other over his chest, making a point of turning away from Thor. His brother took that as a cue to speak.

"Father, this is Jane Foster."

"I know," Odin replied. Loki took some slight satisfaction from the fact that he seemed unimpressed.

"You told your dad about me?" Jane whispered nervously.

"Why is she here?"

"She is ill," Thor explained. "Something is within her, Father. Something I have not seen before."

"Her world has healers, ones who have a far greater understanding of their sicknesses. You should have let them deal with it. Our knowledge of their kind is incomplete and far outdated."

"Just as I said," Loki couldn't keep himself from adding.

Thor glared but made no reply to him.

"Loki is right, Thor," Odin agreed. "She is mortal and other mortals will know best how to help her. Return her to Midgard at once and pray your delaying her treatment has not sealed her fate."

One of Eir's assistants stepped forward to remove Jane from the soul forge. The moment she laid a hand on her, a surge of power burst from Jane, throwing the assistant clear across the room where she was caught by a pair of Einherjar guards before she could crash against the wall. Thor leaped to Jane's side to make sure she was all right. Loki and Odin remained where they were while everyone else backed away.

"That's not possible," Loki breathed, gaping at Jane with numb disbelief.

Odin said nothing as he joined Thor at Jane's side. He lifted the arm Eir's unfortunate assistant handled and spoke a few murmured words of seiðr, revealing a pulsing red glow flowing through Jane's body.

Loki could hardly make himself breathe through his shock. It was as if the solid ground beneath his feet had disappeared and he could not stop the fall.

"The infection, it's defending her," Eir observed with her clinical curiosity.

Loki couldn't fault her for her conclusion but he knew she was wrong. He was about to clarify things but Thor spoke first.

"No. It's defending itself."

The two of them exchanged a look while Odin stepped back from the forge. With a profound weariness, he said, "Nor is it an infection."

"What is it?" Thor asked.

Loki closed his eyes and shook his head, wondering how his brother could still be so dense. "The Aether, Thor. Your precious mortal found the Aether."

~~~|~~~

In the observatory, Heimdall heard a distant call and turned his gaze away from the palace. He was very interested in knowing just how this unassuming mortal woman uncovered the Aether before the young prince but he had to attend his duties first.

Pointing the bifrost toward Vanaheim, he opened the bridge. Through it came Fandral and Volstagg escorting the last bunch of insurgents to Asgard's dungeons. The greater part of the rebellion was dealt with weeks ago but rooting out the last of the miscreants took far longer.

"Acting as caretakers to these scoundrels is beneath us," Volstagg complained.

Fandral let loose a jovial chuckle. "Oh, please. If they were beneath you, my rotund friend, they'd all be dead."

The two friends carried on in their banter but Heimdall paid them little notice. One of the prisoners caught his attention. Something about him was different. He did not move as the rest did, shoulders slouched and eyes downcast, sullen over their fate. The way he cast his eyes around was observant, not wary or fearful. His bearing was straight-backed, but not stiff. His steps were measured, but not cautious. Marks of a warrior.

The guardian watched the procession all the way into the dungeon, not even turning away once the prisoners were secure in their cells. Prophecy and foresight were not among his gifts so he saw no reason to fear, and yet an inkling of dread settled in the back of his mind. He couldn't banish the feeling that Asgard was in danger. Only, there was nothing he could see, no visible threat to guard against. He'd observed the second prince seemed convinced something terrible would happen in time with the Convergence but with no obvious signs of danger, there was nothing for any of them to do but watch and wait. And hope that whatever was coming could be seen before it was too late.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I should have said this at the beginning but there aren't many things that disturb me in entertainment, nor do I have any actual triggers, so I may not always be conscious of things I need to warn for. If there's ever anything you see here or in any of my other fics that you'd like me to warn for, please don't hesitate to tell me. You can leave a comment here or if you prefer, you can ask anonymously through tumblr (links are at the bottom).

"Oh my god," Darcy groaned. "How many times are you going to make me say it? I don't know what happened to Jane, I don't know how she attacked your officers, and I don't know where she is!"

The detective—sorry, detective _inspector,_ as he kept correcting her—sitting across from Darcy didn't even blink at her outburst. Totally, one-hundred percent unimpressed. Darcy sighed and let her head fall forward onto the table with a thud. This day couldn't get any worse. First of all, nobody had heard from Selvig. Dude just dropped off the face of the Earth. Then her boss-lady goes MIA for hours and hey, just because Darcy's paid to be there doesn't mean she doesn't actually care about them both. Then Jane shows up just long enough to magically whammy the cops and their cars before being whisked away in the godly arms of her boyfriend and leaving Darcy and the intern to answer for it all. Nice, huh?

The inspector, whose name was so boring it refused to stick in her memory, hadn't changed posture at all in the last hour. He remained leaning back in his chair, arms folded across his plain dress shirt and even plainer necktie, with an expression of bland disapproval on his face. "What were you doing in the warehouse?"

"Looking for gravity stuff," Darcy answered without lifting her head off the table.

"Gravity stuff."

"Yup."

"What sort of... gravity stuff... would that be?"

"I don't know. I'm not a scientist. I just work for one."

"You've worked for Doctor Foster for nearly two years."

"So?"

"In all that time, you didn't bother learning what it is she does?"

Okay, interrogation was bad enough, but now it was patronizing interrogation. Darcy was not getting paid enough to deal with this. She lifted her head just far enough to look him in the eye. "Dude, seriously? There are about five people on the planet who understand Jane's science and you, me, and this whole department put together wouldn't equal one of them. It's not that I didn't bother, it's that theoretical astrophysics is a little beyond me."

The guy just raised an eyebrow in response, which seemed about as extreme a facial expression as he could make. Darcy leaned forward again and hit her head a few times on the table. On the third bounce, a thought occurred to her as if dislodged from the recesses of her memory by the impact.

"Hey, I'm not a legal expert but I'm pretty sure you can't hold someone without charging them. So either get to it, or let me go."

He opened his mouth to respond but a loud knock at the door interrupted. "What?"

The door opened and a uniformed officer poked his head in. "Sorry, Inspector Shipton. There's someone to see you. About them." On the last word, the officer nodded in Darcy's direction.

"Please let it be Thor," she muttered to herself. Or maybe not quite to herself. Both Shipton and the other officer were giving her weird looks.

"Tell him to wait," Shipton said.

"Sorry, sir, but I can't."

"Why not?" Darcy and Shipton asked at the same time, earning her another raised eyebrow.

The officer pushed open the door fully, revealing a man behind him wearing an impeccable black suit, who said, "Because my jurisdiction is a little broader than yours."

Shipton got to his feet. "And who might you be?"

"Agent Phil Coulson, of the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Logistics Division."

"That's quite the mouthful."

Coulson smirked. "We know." He walked in and handed a folded up piece of paper to the inspector. Darcy craned her neck but couldn't see what it said from where she sat. "This woman is in our agency's employ, working on a classified project under Doctor Foster. We'll handle everything from here."

Shipton started reading. "This only addresses the trespassing. One of my men was hurt in the altercation. Not to mention the damage done to our vehicles."

"We're aware of the other damages. Arrangements are being made to finance repairs for the vehicles. Your officer is being seen," Coulson paused to check his watch, "right now by a specialist flown in from Germany. He'll receive the best available care."

"You flew in a specialist," Shipton said slowly, something approximating surprise beginning to show on his face. "For a concussion and a few broken ribs."

"Like I said, the best available care."

The almost surprised look on Shipton's face took on a hint of the dubious. "This all sounds a bit preposterous."

"Feel free to confirm it with the Commissioner of Scotland Yard."

Darcy snickered. It was funny enough to her that Scotland Yard existed for real outside of the Conan Doyle stories but now she suddenly had the mental image of Coulson as Sherlock and Shipton as Lestrade. The dopey Lestrade from the books, that is, not the more competent (and much hotter) BBC version.

"The directive was also co-signed by the heads of both the Security Service and the SIS," Coulson went on. "I believe there's instructions on how to contact them if you need further confirmation."

Shipton read the paper again. The whole paper. Again. "You know, I've never heard of the Strategic Homeland-"

"Just call us SHIELD, and no, you wouldn't have," Coulson told him. "I can wait if you want to go make those phone calls."

The two men engaged in a stare down. Shipton had to be at least a little pissed that SHIELD was booting him off his own case but his expression only changed from mildly dubious to slightly irked.

"I don't think that will be necessary," he said finally. "You're free to go, miss."

"Ms. Lewis, follow me," Coulson said.

Darcy didn't have to be told twice. This was the first thing today to go right and she wasn't going to stick around any longer than she had to in case they went sideways again. She shot out of her seat and made for the door, pausing just long enough to throw a little farewell salute to the inspector. Coulson stepped back to let her pass into the hallway. The intern was waiting outside and from his jittery posture, he was anxious about something. If she didn't get paid enough to deal a disappearing boss and an arrest, he for sure didn't. She was surprised he hadn't bolted already. She was even more surprised when he lunged forward and put his arms around her instead.

"Um, okay. What's this about?" Darcy asked. He let go and jumped back so suddenly it was like he'd received an electric shock.

"I-I-I was worried about you," he stammered in a rush.

"Yeah, right."

"I was."

He said it with such earnestness that it stopped Darcy dead in her tracks. And the way he looked at her, like he thought he'd never see her again. Clearly, Ian had never been arrested before, which could explain his nerves—because come on, nobody really goes to jail for trespassing—but that wasn't all it was. He wasn't just afraid. He was afraid for her.

Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to think about it because Coulson stepped between them with a, "If you two are finished..."

He led them to another room where they collected their personal effects before he herded them out the station's front doors and into a big black SUV that just screamed 'American government vehicle' and that looked totally out of place among the smaller European cars. It was only after Darcy climbed in the back that she noticed someone sitting in the passenger seat.

"Erik!" she all but shouted. "Where have you been? Jane called you like seventeen times."

Selvig smiled ruefully. "It was more like seven, but I take your point."

"And?"

"I got arrested."

"So did we!" Ian exclaimed like an excited puppy.

Erik chuckled. "So I noticed."

"For what?" Darcy demanded.

"They thought I was vandalizing Stonehenge."

Darcy blinked, trying to parse that sentence while Coulson climbed into the driver's seat. Once inside, he turned around to face them. "So, who wants to explain how three out of four members of one of our elite science teams got arrested on the same day? And where is Doctor Foster?"

"You may as well start driving," Darcy told him as he sat back and put her seat belt on. "It's a long story."

~~~|~~~

_God, this is uncomfortable,_ Jane thought as Loki and Odin marched her and Thor from the infirmary to some kind of archive room. The tension was so thick between the men the air was almost vibrating with it. She kept catching herself holding her breath, waiting for the explosion that had to be coming. Everywhere she looked she saw some new piece of technology that she couldn't even ask about, afraid that if she even opened her mouth, one of her Asgardian escorts would combust.

Directly in front of her was Loki. Jane couldn't explain why it suddenly felt like he was a lot taller than he was the last time they met. Even with his back turned she couldn't shake the feeling he was looming over her somehow. He was certainly giving off a disconcerting vibe. From the moment he walked in the door of the infirmary he sounded angry, and his mood hadn't improved any since then. It got worse once he realized what was inside her. it felt like he was blaming her for something but she had no idea what. Maybe it was her own curiosity that got her into this mess but why would that be his problem? And try as she might, she couldn't recall anything she'd said or done in their previous brief interactions that would inspire such animosity. Surely Thor would have told her if she had, wouldn't he?

Her musings on the subject were derailed the moment she set foot inside the archive. In the center of the room was a huge tree that stretched all the way up to a ceiling so high she couldn't actually see it. It had branches and leaves like an ordinary tree but it was anything but. Along nine of its largest limbs were what appeared to be swirling galaxies. Holographic representations, she assumed, but more lifelike than any hologram she'd ever seen. Not even Tony Stark's projections looked so real. With a jolt, she remembered a drawing Thor made her once, showing how the Nine Realms were connected. At the time she thought the term 'World Tree' was a figure of speech. She now realized the truth, from Thor's perspective at least, might be a bit more literal.

Jane could have quite happily stood there all day, examining every detail of every branch, but Odin's voice filtered through her awestruck thoughts, reminding her of the problem at hand. He was saying something about ancient relics.

"Uh, I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?"

The king glanced at her over his shoulder looking vaguely peeved. Jane looked at Thor for help and he gave her an apologetic smile and gestured for her to be patient. While on Earth, it was easy to forget who Thor really was. He had such an easygoing personality that he seemed like a regular guy. One with a terribly refined vocabulary, but a regular guy all the same. She'd have to remember that he was more than that here. She was dealing with royalty, princes and a king, and kings were not used to the attention of their subjects wandering while they spoke.

Odin led them to a dimly lit side room where he pulled several massive volumes off a shelf and laid them out on the table. Over their heads, a light fixture turned on by itself casting a dull glow over them. As Jane looked up, she realized the term might be inaccurate. Though it was too dark to tell for sure, she couldn't actually see anything _fixing_ the light to the ceiling. Maybe there was and she just couldn't see it? It could be disguised by some kind of phase shifting technology. If the fixture itself was exactly 180 degrees out of phase with Asgard's visible light spectrum–

_Focus, Jane!_

She wrenched her attention back to the present, embarrassed at being distracted by what for Asgard was surely a simple appliance. Odin had one of the massive tomes open on the table and he waved them over. They all went except for Loki. He hung back, standing with his arms crossed while he looked out through the intricate grating covering the room's only window.

After everything she'd seen so far, the fact that Asgardians were still using paper books was a surprise and, frankly, a bit of a letdown. Between Tony Stark's holographic computer interfaces and all of SHIELD's digital tech, this was kind of unimpressive. The book looked beautiful, but it was still just a book. Jane glanced back to the window where Loki stood with his back to them and wondered why they would put such a dense grating over the room's biggest light source. How was anybody supposed to read in such a dark place?

Odin turned to a specific page and Jane gasped, immediately taking back all her thoughts on the boring nature of the book. The pages gave off their own light, and it wasn't like the harsh glow of a tablet or computer monitor. This was a soft golden glow, perfect for the brightness level in the room. She vowed that someday soon, she was going to pin Thor down on the magic=science discussion they had at one point if even the books in Asgard were magical.

The All-Father spoke about an alien race existing before the universe took the form they were all familiar with. He turned a few more pages until he came to one with a beautiful, if slightly creepy, illustration of several of the aliens, or dark elves as she learned they were called. _Darcy will have a field day when she finds out elves are real,_ Jane thought absently, transfixed by the moving illustration. The elves all had large pointed ears and blank white faces that looked almost mask-like. In the illustration one of the elves stood before several others, with something red bursting out of his hand that reached up to a golden circle that must represent a sun. The other elves all held long narrow swords in their hands and something about the combination of the deadly weapons and their empty faces as they venerated the object made Jane shudder.

Shrugging off her discomfort, Jane focused more intently on what Odin was saying, trying to wrap her head around the idea of a universe comprised of only dark energy and dark matter. She thought of a few of her fellow scientists who would kill to talk to a species who were existed at the birth of the universe. Jane was one of them but the knowledge that a weaponized version of those dark forces was coursing through her blood dampened her scientific enthusiasm.

Odin related how the dark elves' leader, someone called Malekith, intended to use that weapon to return the universe to its former darkness. His description of a fluid, ever-changing substance perfectly fit the red liquid she found on that other world.

"It seeks out host bodies," Odin said, "drawing strength from their life force."

 _Like a parasite,_ she thought.

"After eternities of bloodshed, my father, Bor, triumphed over Malekith's forces, ushering in a new era of peace that lasted thousands of years."

"What happened?" Jane asked, hoping Odin wouldn't view her speaking up as impertinent.

Fixing her with an even gaze, Odin replied, "He killed them all."

"All of them?" 

"Only those not slaughtered by Malekith himself," Loki spoke up for the first time.

"What?" she gasped, fear of impertinence forgotten.

Loki stayed with his back to the room, looking out the window. When he spoke, it was with a weary tone, like he'd told the story a thousand times before. "Our people intercepted the Aether before Malekith could use it and hid it away. With his weapon gone and no hope of victory, he made a desperate attempt to lay waste to Asgard's forces by downing all his own airships on the field of battle. The explosions killed all that was left of his army. It brought a swift and rather... decisive end to the war."

"Oh my god," Jane murmured.

Loki turned and began a gradual approach. "For five thousand years, most believed the Aether was destroyed and those who believed otherwise never found it. How did you?"

The accusatory way he asked the question coupled with how he was close enough to loom over her by the time he asked it made her take a nervous gulp before speaking.

"I wasn't looking for it. It was an accident."

"An accident," Loki repeated flatly.

Jane cleared her throat, stalling while she gathered herself and smashed down her nerves. She'd had to defend a theory on the existence of wormholes to the most skeptical group of professors who ever lived to earn her PhD. She could face down one cranky alien prince.

"We picked up signs of anomalous activity in London. My team and I went to investigate one of the sites. I was following some unusual readings to their source when I got pulled through a portal of some kind. It spit me out in this cavern and there was a pillar with a red light inside. I went to take a closer look and that was when it grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go."

She shuddered again at the memory of being pinned in place with no choice but to watch something slither under her skin. It didn't help her nerves any that the longer she talked, the more displeased Loki looked, making her take an unconscious step backward.

"Then everything went black and I woke up back inside the warehouse."

Loki stared at her a moment longer before he burst out laughing, which might have broken the tension except it was a completely joyless sound. If it was possible for a laugh to sound angry, he was doing it.

"Unbelievable," he declared. "I spend my every waking hour for a year searching for the Aether and instead it calls to you, the weakest most pathetic host imaginable."

"Loki, enough," Odin scolded him.

Once again, Jane wasn't paying any attention to Odin. Thor's own brother, whom she had a great deal of respect for up until that moment, had just called her pathetic and weak. To her _face_.

"Look, pal. I didn't ask for this. Maybe if your people weren't so stingy about sharing their knowledge of Einstein-Rosen connections I wouldn't have to go chasing after such wildly unpredictable phenomena to advance my own work.

"Maybe you shouldn't meddle with forces so far beyond your ken," Loki countered. "After all, if your immediate thought upon being dragged through an unstable interstellar pathway and confronted with a mysterious glowing artifact was to reach out and touch it, then you demonstrate a disturbing lack of appreciation for the powers at work here, to say nothing of your own sense of self-preservation. Even a dwarf would sense infinity stones are not to be trifled with."

She hadn't yet met any dwarfs in Asgard but even so, Jane had the distinct impression the phrase meant Loki had just added 'stupid' to his opinion of her.

"How was I supposed to know some red glowing liquid was an infinity stone? It..." Jane trailed off, realizing what she and Loki both just said. "It's an infinity stone?"

Loki answered with rolled eyes and an exasperated, "Yes."

An icy chill slithered down Jane's neck. She'd read the report about the Tesseract incident and it included everything the Asgardians said about it. "As in one of those artifacts that you said has the power to tear apart the universe?"

"As in."

"And it's inside me."

Loki nodded. Jane had to pause to swallow down the sudden nervousness trying to close up her throat.

"So, then, we have to get it out of me, right? I mean... if it can destroy galaxies then there's not much chance I'll survive this, is there?"

Loki exchanged a silent glance with his father and said nothing. The weight of Thor's hand coming to rest on her shoulder gave her her answer instead.

"We will find a way to save you, Jane. I swear," he promised.

It was meant to be reassuring but his grave tone combined with the grim look on Loki's face that told her he didn't share Thor's confidence just made her heart sink even more.

"You'll find a way," Jane repeated. "Meaning you don't have one now."

"No," Odin said. "We do not."

The sudden cawing of a raven startled Jane so much that if Thor's hand hadn't still been weighing down her shoulder she would have jumped a mile. None of the others were even a little surprised. Odin listened to the bird and left without saying anything else, which Thor and Loki were also not surprised about. The three of them stood a few moments in a profoundly awkward silence.

"So... what now?" she asked.

"Now we find a way to extract the Aether from you," Thor said.

Loki scoffed. "And by we, he means me, of course. Far be it from my brother to put his mind to study."

"Loki-"

"No, please," Loki cut him off. "I wouldn't want you to strain yourself with such intense reading. Besides, since Doctor Foster was so kind as to find the Aether for me, I seem to lately have an abundance of time on my hands. I shall be happy to devote it to helping your _friend._ Do excuse me." He inclined his head in a mockery of a bow and strode out of the room.

Once he was gone, Jane turned back to Thor. "Okay, what was that about? I mean, I think I've only talked to Loki for a total of twenty minutes before today but I'm pretty sure I didn't make that bad an impression."

Thor sighed, his hand sliding off her shoulder to take hers. "Fret not over him, Jane. The cause of his foul temper has little to do with you. He has done nothing but search for the Aether for the last year and in all that time, he found nothing. I fear you have become a convenient target for his frustration on the matter, as I was before this happened."

"So he's been that pissy with you too?"

"Indeed. Only a few days ago he blamed my extended stay upon Midgard for his inability to find the Aether."

"Well, what does he think you could do about it that he can't?"

Thor chuckled. "I haven't the slightest idea. He never once asked for my help or suggested how I might do so. He also seems convinced that something terrible will happen during the Convergence, though he's not been able to explain what, nor is there a sign of any such trouble."

"Convergence?" Jane repeated. The word caught something in her memory. It was part of Odin's explanation of the dark elves plot to change the universe into dark matter but he didn't explain how.

"Yes, it is very close."

"What is it, though? Your dad didn't really explain it."

Thor smiled and started for the door, still holding her hand which compelled her to follow.

"Every five thousand years..."

~~~|~~~

Far below Asgard's streets, someone stirred. A prisoner held something in his hand. Something dangerous. He took a calming breath before crushing the object in his fingers. When the change happened, it was swift.

Streaks of orange light arced across his body, burning like fire. Everywhere it touched was agony but the prisoner didn't release his grip. By the time smoke began billowing from his body, his fellow captives were bashing their hands against the barrier locking them in, scorching their own hands as they screamed for the guards. A surge of energy burst from the prisoner's body, knocking the other inmates unconscious.

Only then did he begin to scream.

But the prisoner was no longer himself, and the scream emerged as an animalistic roar. He fell to his knees, consumed by the burning magic released from the stone, and pounded the ground with fists that were aflame, trying anything to quell the torturous pain. He didn't stop until the transformation was complete.

Fully changed, he rose to his feet. In place of the prisoner stood a horned creature. He looked down at a body he no longer recognized, feeling the immense power coursing through it. Throwing his head back, he roared. After so many centuries of waiting, the time for victory had come. Victory, and vengeance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Want to know something kind of funny? The terms 'dark energy' and 'dark matter' may sound ominous but all they really mean is that scientists know for various reasons that something must exist because we can see its effects or because without it, other things don't make sense, but we can't explain what 'it' is. For example, it's known that the universe is expanding. Galaxies are moving away from each other. According to our present understanding, this expansion should be slowing down because of gravity, which always wants to pull things together. Yet not only is the expansion not slowing down, it's actually speeding up. Some unknown force is acting against gravity and it's winning. That unknown force is referred to as dark energy. So basically it's a scientific term for, 'We know this is out there but we don't know what the hell it is'. Not quite as scary or universe-ending as it's made out to be in the movies. But let's just pretend, okay? ;)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's about to go down...

Thor would never tire of watching Jane's face when she was learning something new. Barring a few exceptions, Asgardians were so long-lived that new experiences became a rarity after their first few centuries of life. Mortals could not be more opposite. For them, almost everything was new, and they seldom lived long enough for the novelty to wear thin. Jane especially revelled in learning, much like Loki. Both of them were possessed of insatiable curiosity and the drive to understand, well, everything. As Thor explained the Convergence, he could almost see the thoughts coalescing in Jane's mind, connecting things she already knew with this new information and fitting it together like pieces of a puzzle. Her face was so expressive Thor knew the exact moment the picture was fully formed in her mind.

Once it was, she peppered him with so many questions that Thor fervently wished his brother was not in such a foul mood. It wasn't so much that Thor couldn't answer, but that Loki could do it so much better. Loki had a gift for knowing how to present information so it was best understood by each listener, no matter how differently the person's mind worked compared with his own. So easy was it for him to get his point across and so persuasive was he when he did, their father's councillors took to calling him Silvertongue behind his back. Whether they meant it as a compliment or not, the All-Father loved his son's gift with words. When Loki sat in on any type of diplomatic conference, the meeting was always shortened by half.

The more often Thor's thoughts strayed to his irritable brother, the more frustrated he felt. Loki accused him of neglecting his duties but if Loki had been paying attention to something other than his books, he might have seen the political trouble brewing on Vanaheim before the rebellion broke out. Now he seemed more interested in lobbing insults at both Thor and Jane rather than make any serious effort to help.

In an effort to turn his thoughts in a more pleasant direction, Thor suggested they take a walk outside the palace after leaving the archive room. Jane readily agreed, eager to see more of this new world and probably welcoming the distraction from her situation. As they entered the marketplace outside the gates, a metal sphere bounced off the ground and rolled to a stop in front of them, where Jane picked it up. Pressing her finger into a small glowing indentation, she gasped as it flew up from her hands and hovered in the air above them, its outer panels detaching and orbiting around it. Thor knew what it was of course, but the sheer wonder on Jane's face moved him to hold his tongue.

"This is amazing," she breathed, awestruck eyes transfixed on the orb. "The magnetic propulsion alone could advance Earth's science years."

Thor smiled at her enthusiasm but managed to tear his eyes away and peer through the crowd. He saw them not far away.

"Jane," he called.

The sphere collapsed and dropped itself into her outstretched hand. "I am so taking this apart."

"Jane." She finally looked at him. "You have their ball." Thor pointed to the three sullen children he spied moments earlier.

"Oh," she said, a little abashed. She obligingly tossed the toy back to the children who ran away with their prize the moment it was in their possession.

The two of them made a slow circle through the market before returning to the palace. They hadn't been back long when Jane stumbled. Thor was at her side in an instant to steady her.

"Are you all right?" he asked. She nodded, but the giddy look in her eyes made him doubt her answer. "Are you sure?"

"Just a bit dizzy, that's all," Jane insisted, though she still leaned heavily on him. 'Maybe the air is thinner her than what I'm used to."

Thor frowned. He didn't know if the density of Asgard's atmosphere was different than Midgard's but even if it was, he suspected that wasn't the real reason. A mortal body simply could not contain the power of the Aether for long without consequence.

"Jane-"

"I'm fine."

"You're not."

She looked up to meet his eyes. "No, I'm not, but I don't want to think about that. Not when there's nothing anyone can do."

Thor cradled her face in his hands, careful to temper his strength. "We will find an answer. My father has never failed me and for all his faults, my brother is the smartest man I know."

"Oh dear," a warm voice declared. "Don't let him hear you say that. He'll be even more impossible."

Thor let his hands slide down from Jane's face to her shoulders and turned her around. "Jane Foster, please meet Frigga, Queen of Asgard. And my mother."

Startled by his announcement, Jane took a quick step away from him. Whether it was concern over any appearance of impropriety or simple anxiety over meeting Frigga, she was suddenly flustered. Her hands fluttered in front of her as though she was suddenly unsure what to do with them before she stilled them by clasping them together.

"H-hi," she stammered.

Frigga's smile was pure warmth. "It is a pleasure, my dear, though I am a little dismayed that my son did not see fit to inform me of your arrival."

That last was accompanied with a rather pointed look over Jane's shoulder to him. Thor ducked his head. "I'm sorry, Mother. Things have been a little chaotic."

"So I hear. Odin told me the Aether is found." Frigga turned her gaze back to Jane. "How do you fare, child?"

"Good. Well, not exactly good. I mean, I've been better, I guess."

Frigga took her by the hand and led her to a stone bench beneath a great window overlooking the palace courtyard. "Tell me."

They had only just begun conversing when a klaxon sounded. Thor was on his feet again in an instant. His mother too recognized the alarm.

"The prison," she said. "Go. I'll look after her."

With a brief nod, Thor took off running. Leaping off the balcony, he called Mjolnir to hand and let her carry him all the way to the dungeon entrance. He raced inside and was greeted by chaos. Everywhere he looked, prisoners were locked in combat with the guards. The heavy footfalls of the Einherjar grew near behind Thor, drawing the attention of the rioting prisoners his way. He held Mjolnir aloft.

"Return to your cells and no further harm will come to you. You have my word."

He scarcely finished speaking when a fist collided with his chin. One swing of his hammer and the insolent bastard went flying.

"Very well, then. You do not have my word."

Both prisoners and guards took his words as a signal and the melee resumed, just as fierce as before. Thor dove into the fray and in short order found himself between Fandral and Volstagg.

"It's almost as if they resent being in prison," Fandral somehow found time to quip in between driving several of the rioters away with his rapier.

"There's just no pleasing some," Volstagg returned, jamming the head of his great axe into the belly of another prisoner.

"Where is my brother?" Thor shouted over the din.

Fandral ducked the swing of a stolen mace wielded by a prisoner. "You expect your brother to attend a simple prison riot after ignoring weeks of trouble in Vanaheim?"

Thor swung his hammer and struck in the head the prisoner who attacked his friend. "And Sif?"

"Was with the royal guard at the palace," Volstagg explained, his axe cleaving one of the rioters nearly in two. "I expect she'll be along. She loves a skirmish."

Thor almost laughed. This pathetic excuse for a battle could not even be called that. In all likelihood it would be over before their friend even arrived. She would be most disappointed to have missed it. His smile fell when he felt the ground shake.

~~~|~~~

In a corner of Asgard far away from the palace there stood an ancient building. Referred to simply as the old archive, it held some of the most ancient and obscure texts in Asgard's collection. Most of them were kept for posterity only, with the palace housing more up-to-date and comprehensive volumes. Few people in Asgard even remembered the archive was there, fewer still ever visited. However, if one was looking for a means to manipulate an ancient source of dark energy not seen for five thousand years, it was best to start with information of the same age.

Loki pulled a tome at least twice as old as his father off the shelf and set it down on the table with great care. Not a single text in the archive was replaceable, even if their value was largely aesthetic now. As such, Loki made sure to handle them gently so as not to cause damage. Even though the simmering rage burning through his veins was such that he'd rather tear the crumbling volume to pieces and burn the building to the ground.

An entire year's worth of effort made worthless by a single mortal who didn't even realize what she'd found. By accident. How many hours had he spent scouring every text from Bor's reign for even the barest hint of where he hid the Aether? How many sleepless nights spent combing through grimoire after grimoire for anything that might help him detect the infinity stone through seiðr? And in the end, apparently all one had to do was wait for the Convergence to grow near and stumble through the nearest portal to find the Aether's precise location.

Though he would prefer to take at least a little time to reconcile himself to his year of wasted efforts, Loki had to keep working. Furious and exhausted he may be, but his sense of duty wouldn't allow him to sit by while the Aether slowly tore Jane apart. So there he sat, fuming in silence as he looked for an answer.

Further adding to his irritation were the distant rumbles of thunder he could hear. No doubt his brother was trying to impress his mortal with that damned hammer of his. One of them was so close it made the archive's walls shudder. Loki looked up just in time to be showered with dust, gritty particles stinging his eyes. It angered him so that he tore the page in front of him neatly in two when he tried to turn it. Loki swore under his breath and followed the invective with a quick incantation to knit the two pieces together again. Even if no one else ever picked up this tome again, which was likely if the thick layer of dust it bore was any indication of how long it sat undisturbed before that day, he refused to leave it in a vandalized state. He only realized once the page was again intact how foolish it was what he did. Using seiðr on a book of seiðr was tricky, dangerous even if the magicks therein interacted poorly with his own.

After cursing his own folly and his brother's distractions, Loki uttered a second spell. The air around him shimmered and bent before clearing again. He waited a few moments to make sure the dampening field raised by the spell was enough to block out the noise of Thor's idiotic displays of power. Satisfied with the silence he heard, he returned to his original purpose.

Mere seconds later, something made the ground shake with such violence that several shelves in the archive collapsed, sending the ancient texts they held tumbling onto the floor.

That was no thunder, nor was it his brother. Thor was not so careless as to cause such damage in the city. Something else was happening. Something much worse.

Loki shoved back from the table so hard and rose so fast he tipped over his chair and nearly tripped on it in his haste to make for the door. Not two steps outside, he saw what made the archive quake. A trail of smoke ran across the sky and descended into the city streets not far from where he stood. The smoke nearest the ground had an orange hue, a sure sign of a raging fire from a crashed ship.

A few more steps into the street and Loki could see the palace. He looked on in horrified disbelief as enemy ships swarmed his home. Asgardian skiffs were close on their tails but it seemed the damage was already done. Only when one of the enemy ships taking fire blew up in total silence did Loki realized his dampening field was still up. He dispelled it with a word and was instantly assaulted by the sounds of the battle. The roar of enemy airships and the returning fire of Asgard's rail guns filled his ears but it was the screaming that left him stunned. The screams of people fleeing the streets into their homes for safety or running from the site of the downed airship, their once safe city turned into a field of battle.

Dragging his eyes back up, he noticed something else. The shield wasn't up. The palace shield that was all but impregnable was not raised, leaving it exposed to enemy fire. Loki turned the direction of the observatory where Heimdall had control of the shield and he saw it. His greatest fear come to life. A ship with a very distinctive cross shape hovered at the horizon just beyond the golden dome. Only one race ever built a ship with that design. One race under one particular leader.

"Malekith," Loki breathed in horror.

This was it, exactly what he feared from the moment he deduced the Aether was not destroyed and the dark elves may not be as extinct as everyone believed. He knew he needed to act, to join the fight, but shock kept him rooted where he stood until another impact from another downed ship shook the ground. It didn't knock him off his feet but a pair of terrified adolescents running from the blast did.

The collision snapped him out of his stupor. Loki scrambled to his feet and closed his eyes to concentrate. Malekith could have but one target—Jane. She must be protected above all else. Straining to focus amidst the battle and his own chaotic emotions, Loki reached out to the palace with seiðr, but he couldn't find her through the many distractions. Gritting his teeth, he tried again, feeling every part of himself strain with the effort to set aside the confusion and frenzy, both within and without, and concentrate. But he still found nothing. Panic flared in his chest, ruining his focus again. He should have been able to see her, sense her, but she was gone. Had Malekith succeeded already?

Gathering what little concentration he could muster, Loki tried again, desperate for a sign that not all was lost. That was when he felt it. Not Jane, something else. Something rather similar to the dampening field he used before. And it was his mother's handiwork.

Loki huffed out a relieved breath. Jane hadn't been taken by Malekith. Frigga was hiding her. Now that he knew what he was looking for, Loki pinpointed the source of the spell and transported himself straight to it, expecting to find his mother and Jane safe and concealed. His relief vanished the moment he materialized within the palace. He found his mother, so powerful she could mask even the presence of an infinity stone, helpless and at the mercy of a dark elf and a monstrous creature who held a sword to her back.

Gripped by panic, he lashed out with seiðr, but he was too slow. The monster had already started to move. As if time slowed, Loki saw everything with brutal clarity. He saw the monster's arm tense as it began to thrust and a glint of light from the blade as it shifted into motion. Despite the noise of the still raging battle, he heard a pained rush of breath leave his mother's mouth. And he saw his own strike land too late, knocking the beast back and making him drop his weapon, but not before it already pierced Frigga's back. She fell to the ground, unmoving.

Time's flow returned to normal right as a bolt of lightning arced over Loki's shoulder and straight at Malekith's face. The elf flew backward, slamming into the balcony parapet. The beast, already recovered from Loki's attack, gathered up his master and leaped the two of them over the edge. Loki hardly noticed his brother rush past him, flinging Mjolnir at the two fiends. All he could look at was his mother's lifeless body, collapsed on the ground where that vile creature dropped her.

Thor turned back his direction, Mjolnir once again in hand. He knelt beside their mother and grasped her wrist.

"Is... is she..." Loki hesitated, forcefully swallowing down what felt like a stone lodged in his throat. "Thor, is she-"

"She lives," he said. "But she isn't breathing. Go and tell Eir we're coming."

Loki didn't move. He couldn't. Not until he saw her move.

"Loki, _go!_ " 

"We'll go," came a reply from behind him. Though he couldn't tear his eyes from Frigga, Loki spied Jane and Sif at the corner of his vision.

Thor got to his feet, Frigga limp in his arms. "Thank you, Jane."

The patter of her soft shoes and the louder clank of Sif's boots swiftly disappeared down the corridor. Loki still could not force himself to move, not even as Thor pushed past him. How could this happen? How had he not foreseen this exact thing? How could he have been so foolish to ignore obvious signs of trouble and stay safe in his seiðr bubble in the archive when he was the one saying for a year that Malekith would make his return? If that ship hadn't crashed nearby he might still be there and Frigga-

Loki gasped, his mind playing back the sight of the blade driving into her again and again. He pressed his hands to his head as hard as he could, as though that alone would force the images out.

"Loki?"

He turned and saw his father approaching, Gungnir held ready in his hands. "It's Mother. She..."

His voice caught in his throat and he couldn't speak. Odin drew closer, and asked, "Where is she?"

"...The healing room. Thor took her."

Odin's eye widened and he turned and left without a word. Forcing himself into action, Loki uprooted his feet from the floor and followed, step by lumbering step, feeling as though a weight as heavy as Mjolnir was attached to each limb. By the time he reached the healing room, his mother was already in the soul forge. Eir stood beside it, examining its readings with a grim expression on her face. Thor and Jane stood at the foot of the forge, holding hands with fingers interlaced. Odin passed them and stood across from Eir. Loki stopped at the entrance, his reluctant body carrying him no further.

"There was an enchantment on the blade, my king," Eir explained gravely. "It prevents the wound from healing. We can lift it but it will take time, perhaps hours. There is a chance it may not be fast enough."

Odin nodded, solemnly taking his wife's hand. Loki's mind began to spin, twisting and turning at frantic speeds. There had to be something, some way to...

"Her situation is not without hope," Eir continued. "For the size of the weapon, the wound is shallow. Had the blade pierced her heart, she would have already succumbed to the injury. We have a chance to restore her, but we must begin right away."

Thor looked over at Loki, a weak smile on his face. "It seems you gave her a fighting chance, brother."

Loki shook his head, mind still racing. "No, she died."

His brother's smile vanished. "What?"

Loki descended into the healing room and walked to the soul forge, scrambling to put his thoughts in order. "Let word be spread she died. We can use-"

He was cut off by a hand striking him across the face, hard enough that he stumbled sideways. Loki straightened up, pressing a hand to the side of his face where he felt a thin trickle of blood from a small cut across his cheekbone. In front of him stood Odin, hand still clenched in a fist. The blazing fire in his eye stopped Loki's heart for several beats.

"How dare you," Odin bellowed. "Your mother may yet die and your only thought is how to use the situation for gain?"

Loki stepped back, hands raised in surrender. "No, that's not-"

"So you merely tempt the Norns to make her death certain by declaring it so."

"Father, please. I-"

The All-Father silenced him with a wordless roar. Before he was aware of his own movement, Loki was running. He fled as fast as he could, not even hesitating when he heard Thor calling after him.


	6. Chapter 6

One by one, Thor searched the halls of Glaðsheim for any sign of his brother. It was slow going though. He simply could not stop himself from getting lost in his own thoughts. In the space of just a few hours, everything he was once certain of felt overturned. His home, a place he always thought of as the most secure in all the galaxy, proved alarmingly vulnerable. Large portions of the golden citadel lay in ruins. And Asgard, the Realm Eternal and protector of the Nine, was in need of protection herself. 

Worse still was the strife within his own family. His mother gravely wounded, her condition still uncertain, seemed to set them all adrift. Thor watched his father strike his own son in anger, helpless to do anything about it. The absolute shock in Loki's eyes was not a sight Thor would soon forget, nor was the agony on his brother's face as he turned and fled. No one had seen him since. As for Odin, he seemed to have retreated into himself. There were no further outbursts, no more fits of temper. He remained by Frigga's bedside, a silent and immovable sentinel watching over her. The All-Father was always a giant in Thor's imagination, even long after he grew taller than his father. But now Odin seemed somehow diminished, little more than a weak old man.

With a single attack by Malekith and his forces and everything Thor knew to be certain was shaken to its foundations. It was only by sheer force of will that Thor managed to brace up himself and everything he held dear against forces determined to shatter them. He knew he had no other option. His father was consumed by worry and grief, and in no shape to govern. His brother was missing and just as unbalanced by everything as their father. That left only him. If Thor too fell apart, there would be no one else to step into the void they left.

There was nothing he could do to aid Eir in breaking the enchantment keeping Frigga's wound from healing, so Thor took action of a different sort. He first had Sif retrieve the rest of the Warriors and tasked them with watching over Jane and assisting the efforts to repair the citadel's defences by turns. With Odin and Frigga surrounded by Einherjar, Thor felt as sure as he could about their safety in light of the threat the dark elves still posed. He gave Odin a long lingering look before leaving the healing room, wondering if his father even realized what he'd done to Loki. He'd seen such things before, the way some warriors were left insensible after a battle, unconscious and unaware of the acts committed by their own two hands. If Odin was in such a state, speaking to him now would be of no use. That left only one other thing Thor could do.

A search of Loki's chamber turned up nothing. After each of his brother's favourite haunts within the palace proved similarly vacant, Thor began a systematic search, despite feeling somewhat hopeless about his chances of finding Loki given his brother's skill at hiding and his own state of distraction.

One of the last places Thor thought to search was their mother's garden. The garden was hers and hers alone. She allowed no one from among the palace staff to tend it, doing everything from watering and weeding to uprooting dead trees herself. Bordered by high trees and thick shrubs it was completely private, and whether it was the properties of the plants themselves or some trick of seiðr, one couldn't help but feel a certain peace of mind there. That alone should have made it the first place Thor looked for Loki, he realized belatedly. His brother had to be in dire need of some solace.

Thor stood at the entrance of the garden and heaved a dejected sigh. It appeared as empty as the other places he'd looked, which bothered him for more than one reason. He'd been there many times before, but almost never without Frigga. Being there in her absence somehow felt like trespassing, as though he was intruding somewhere he didn't belong. He went in anyway despite the discomfort, just to make sure there was nowhere his brother could be hiding. Only a few steps inside the garden however, he felt a sudden urge to leave. He followed it, turning to go back the way he came. But something made him hesitate. It was a moment before he worked it out.

Though Thor was uncomfortable in the garden in his mother's absence, he wasn't overwhelmed by the feeling. The urge to leave arose too abruptly to have come out of his own feelings. In fact, it was almost as though something, or perhaps someone was willing him away.

"Loki?" Thor called out, and was answered by the urge to leave doubling in intensity. "Loki, please. Enough of this."

At first he received no answer, but Thor simply planted his feet, crossed his arms, and waited. At length, the space at the base of one of the nearby trees shimmered and resolved itself into a shape. Loki sat upon the ground with his back against the tree, one leg drawn up in front of him and the other stretched out on the grass. His arms were crossed tight over his chest in a way that rather looked like it was the only thing holding him together. His eyes were raised but empty, his thoughts far elsewhere.

"Is there news?" Loki asked, hoarse and hollow.

Thor knelt down beside him. "She has not yet awoken."

"Then you should be in the healing room."

"As should you."

A muscle in Loki's cheek twitched. "I don't think I'm exactly welcome."

Thor laid a hand on his shoulder. "Loki, don't be a fool."

"Father-"

"Was upset," he interrupted. "Upset and grieving. He and Mother have been together longer than you or I have lived, and he may yet lose her."

"I don't need reminding of that," Loki snapped, pushing Thor's hand off. He got to his feet at began walking away. Thor stood as well.

"Loki, wait. Loki!"

His brother turned on his heel and glared at him with wild eyes. "Can you not leave me in peace?"

"No," Thor replied. "Not when you are acting this way."

Loki sneered, lip curling. "I don't need a lecture on behaviour from you of all people, brother."

He tried to walk away but Thor caught his arm. "Loki-"

"I failed!" Loki shouted, surprising Thor enough with the surge of emotion that he was able to wrench his arm free. "I failed and now look around! The city is burning, Glaðsheim is in shambles, and Mother is..."

"This wasn't your fault, brother," Thor told him gently, wary of provoking an even more violent reaction.

"Is it not? My search for the Aether amounted to nothing. I was sure the dark elves would make a move near the Convergence but I never considered they would be so bold as to attack Asgard outright. And then w-when it happened, I... I..."

"You what?"

Loki's eyes slid away from him and after a lengthy pause, he shook his head without speaking, his prior emotion draining away and leaving behind that awful emptiness again. He took a half a step back and stopped as though he didn't know where his feet thought his body was going. Thor realized he'd seen his brother like this before, when he learned of his true heritage. Despite reassurance from his family, Loki at times seemed similarly unmoored back then, as if cut loose from everything that once anchored his existence. Then, just as now, Thor wished he had his brother's gift for words. Getting through Loki's guard was no easy task at the best of times, let alone at a time such as this. Nevertheless, he had to try.

"Loki, I too worry for Mother, but she is not the only one in danger," Thor said. "Malekith knew the Aether was here. He must have sensed it. Once he recovers, he will try again, I am sure of it. And when he does, he will lay waste to all of Asgard. So long as the Aether remains here and inside Jane, none of us is safe. You are the strategist, brother, not I. I know you have a plan."

A hint of emotion flickered across Loki's features then disappeared. "Why would you think that?"

"What you said to Father before he..." Thor hesitated when Loki bristled at the reminder of the altercation. "You said to tell everyone Mother died. You were about to say more. What was it?"

For a moment, Thor thought Loki was going to tell him. There was a spark of something in his brother's eyes the way there always was when his mind was at work. But then the spark went out, and the lost look returned. He just stood there with his hands hanging at his sides, fingers curling and uncurling sporadically.

"It doesn't matter," he said at last. "None of it matters."

With that, he turned and walked away.

~~~|~~~

As she paced around the room, Jane had an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu. For the second time today, she was under lockdown for her own protection. She even had Sif as her guardian again, just like when the dark elves attacked. There was a difference, though. Before she was confident in the Asgardians' ability to keep her safe. Now, she wasn't so sure.

Her nerves kept her from being still and kept her thoughts racing, pondering everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. She was on another world, was possibly even the first human to ever set foot in Asgard. It was the kind of thing she dreamt of as a little girl. She used to imagine herself exploring the stars the way ancient seafarers explored the vast oceans. As she grew, her focus shifted more toward science than exploration, but those childhood fantasies remained safely tucked inside her memories. But not even in her most wild flights of fancy had she ever imagined anything like this. Asgard was without question the most scientifically advanced place she had ever seen. They had a strange way of dressing up their light-years-beyond-Earth technology in archaic-looking trappings but once you got past the aesthetics, you saw just how far all of it surpassed everything from back home. Jane could probably spend her entire life in Asgard and just scratch the surface of their knowledge.

And yet this incredible place, this wonder of a realm where science and magic were one and the same, where even the toys outclassed everything she knew, was under siege from an enemy who destroyed half the city and nearly killed the queen.

What Jane saw when she looked out at the city now was not magical or wondrous. All she saw was danger. Swept up in both the excitement of seeing a new world and the uncertainty of her own situation with the Aether, she somehow forgot that if Asgard was this advanced, other alien races might be as well, and not all of them were necessarily friendly. Even though she heard about the first war with Malekith's people from Odin, somehow it didn't seem real. It seemed like some ancient, distant thing, like reading about the conquests of Alexander the Great back in school.

Not anymore. Not when she could still smell smoke in the air. Not when she could she could see the destroyed homes and razed buildings. Not when she stepped over the bodies of dead soldiers in the palace halls.

"This is unreal," she murmured.

"What was that?" Sif asked from her post near the door.

"Nothing," Jane replied. "I was just thinking how this is just so... not what I ever expected. First human to travel to another world and this is what happens."

"You should not burden yourself with guilt over this."

"Shouldn't I?"

Sif seemed a little surprised at the question. "You are a woman of science, yes?"

"Yeah," Jane sighed. It wasn't like her scientific background was much of a help right now.

"And you know what the Aether is, what it can do?"

"Odin, I mean, King Odin explained it."

"Then you understand, perhaps better than most, how catastrophic it would have been had Malekith found it first."

A vision of darkness swam in front of Jane's eyes. The sky outside turned a dark blood-red. Thick black smoke filled the air. Everything light became dark. No light. No life. The entire realm was dead.

She blinked, and the vision went away, leaving a dizzy feeling behind that made her lose her balance for a second. Once recovered, she said, "I think I do, yeah."

"Are you all right?" Sif asked, already halfway to her.

Jane couldn't help but laugh. "Sif, I am nothing close to 'all right'."

Sif gave her a blank look for a moment before a slight smile graced her features. She continued, "I know this is difficult for you, Jane Foster. None of us would have wished for things to happen this way, least of all you. But it is better that a few die here if it means the rest of the Yggdrasil is safe. Asgard is the protector of the Nine Realms. There is not a single person here who does not understand the weight of that responsibility."

"I don't know how you guys do that," Jane admitted. "How can you even wrap your head around something like protecting an entire galaxy?"

"It is what we do," Sif replied after a pause. "What we've always done."

Again, Jane could only laugh, although this time it was just to herself. All that time she imagined exploring space and it never really sunk in to her brain just how _alien_ an alien race would be. Sure, she knew on an intellectual level that Asgard and its inhabitants were very different from Earth and humans. But knowing about those differences and and being confronted with them everywhere she turned was not the same. It was intimidating. Intimidating, astonishing, overwhelming... and probably a few dozen other adjectives she had yet to think of.

Another wave of dizziness struck, forcing Jane to actually sit down before she fell. While she waited for it to pass, a reddish aura hovered at the corners of her vision. She could feel the Aether yearning for darkness, yearning to unleash its terrible power. The potential end of all life in the universe as they knew it was writhing under her skin. And oh, did it want to be freed to attain its purpose. It wanted nothing more than to bring death. It made her skin crawl and turned her stomach so badly she could hardly fight down the nausea.

"Hey, I don't mean to be self-centred, but do you think anybody is still working on a way to get this thing out of me?"

Sif, who at some point had come to sit beside her without her noticing, placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure there is a way to help you and Loki will find it. Do not tell him I said so, but he is the smartest man I know, and very determined."

"Why Sif, I had no idea you appraised me so highly."

Sif launched to her feet, hand on her sword. Across from them at the room's entrance stood Loki, holding his hands up in surrender. Sif relaxed her grip on her sword but Jane saw a flash of anger in her eyes.

"Loki, I've told you not to sneak up on me." She paused and looked at the closed and locked door behind him. "And how did you get in here?"

"Ah, I couldn't possibly tell you, Sif. Not when keeping you guessing is half the fun." He lowered one hand to gesture back the way he'd come. "Thor sent me. He wishes to speak with you. Something to do with the palace defences."

Sif raised a dubious eyebrow. "And you agreed to serve as messenger? That is rather unlike you."

"Defying expectations sounds exactly like me," he returned. "But that's beside the point. I do believe the matter was of some urgency."

"Thor tasked me to watch over Jane."

"I know. Why do you think I'm here? I shall take your place until you return."

The doubt didn't quite leave Sif's expression even while she walked away, leaving Jane alone with Loki. 

"So, you drew the short straw, huh?" she asked, and then watched his eyebrows furrow.

"Short straw?"

"The crap assignment nobody wants. You're stuck with the weak pathetic mortal who's even dumber than a dwarf."

To her shock, Loki actually looked a little sheepish. "That was a most unseemly thing for me to say. It was the result of no small amount of frustration. It was wholly unfair of me to take it out on you."

He sounded completely sincere, which was why Jane found it odd that her immediate gut-reaction was suspicion. "Why are you being nice to me now?"

Loki's expression sobered even more. "I suppose recent events have... clarified my perspective."

Oh. Of course. Now she felt guilty for feeling suspicious. "How is your mother?"

"Dying," he said flatly, like he'd been drained of all emotion.

"But I thought Eir said she could be healed."

Loki shook his head, eyes downcast. "Eir is very skilled, but this is beyond even her abilities."

"I'm so sorry. I wish there was something I could do."

"Oh, but there is," he told her, the words carrying an ominous ring. He turned his back on her and waved one hand through the air. Everything around them rippled like they were under water.

"What is that? What did you do?" Jane asked as her heart started to beat faster.

"A concealment charm. No one can see or hear us."

"What's going on?"

When he turned around and Jane saw his face, her blood ran cold. Loki eyed her as though he were a lion stalking its prey. His lips parted in a smile that was positively feral.

"Jane," he said. "There is somewhere we need to go."

~~~|~~~

The throne room, like so many others of Asgard's palace, lay in ruins. The throne itself was destroyed, reduced by dark elf weapons to a pile of mangled remains. At the base of the once magnificent dais, a grim assemblage gathered amid the piles of rubble.

"We are still unable to restore the palace shields," Fandral reported, his usual smile turned gravely stoic. "Our artillery cannot detect the enemy ships. Even Heimdall cannot see them. My king," he hesitated, "we are all but defenceless."

Odin, persuaded only by the direst need of his presence elsewhere to leave his wife's bedside, listened in solemn silence. He gave a single nod as Fandral finished speaking. Before he made any sort of reply, however, Sif charged into the room.

"My king! Loki has absconded with Jane Foster."

At first, the words seemed to make no impression on the All-Father. After a brief delay, understanding dawned on his face, his eye widening in alarm. "Where has he gone? Has Heimdall found them?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

Sif cast a worried eye at her fellow warriors before answering. "Svartalfheim. He took her to Svartalfheim."


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all are going to hate me for this one.

The Asgardians were never known for their brains but until now, Malekith didn't know they believed the other races of Yggdrasil to be as foolish as them. If they thought to hide the Aether from him by removing it from Asgard they were sorely mistaken. Hidden and buried by Bor it was beyond his senses but now, now it was awake. Awake and already taken in by a host. Now it didn't matter where in the Nine it was, Malekith would find it. It called to him, singing its sweet song of destruction and darkness. It called him here, to a world that was once his home.

As his ship descended over the barren wasteland that was Svartalfheim, Malekith could not but feel the stirrings of ancient anger. This was his legacy, a dead world not even populated by the ghosts of its former inhabitants. He killed his home, his people, and not even that was enough to stop Bor's forces. The old king was long dead but his family remained, and Malekith was more than happy to exact vengeance upon them. Murdering Odin's wife was a pleasure he hadn't foreseen but one that he enjoyed immensely, despite what it cost him. The scars now adorning the right side of his face were given him by none other than Bor's grandson, giving Malekith yet another reason to revenge himself on that thrice-cursed family.

The Aether's call grew stronger, a sign they were close. Malekith gave the order to land. Once aground, he descended down from the command deck and out the ship's doors. At first he saw nothing but the bleak landscape. No life, not even any flora survived the war. The wreckage of the ships he ordered down during the battle poisoned the ground so completely that even now, five millennia later, the realm was still dead. There was nothing but bare mountains and lifeless dirt. And sandstorms that never ceased, forever swirling from one corner of the realm to the next.

He couldn't see it yet, but Malekith felt the Aether draw ever closer. He sensed it burning for a stronger host and it would be his pleasure to provide it with one. Then he would make Asgard suffer as his people suffered. It was only a matter of time.

On the crest of a nearby hill, two figures appeared. One was the girl Odin's queen died protecting, the Aether's host; a mortal thing who was even now being eaten up by the power inside her. The second was Odin's other son, the same one who'd lashed out ineffectually against Algrim. At his side, his kursed soldier growled. Whether in anger or surprise Malekith couldn't tell, but it hardly mattered. Whatever Odin's whelp thought he was doing bringing the girl here, he was vastly outnumbered. It would be quick and enjoyable work taking him apart.

The girl gasped when she saw them. "Loki, what are you doing?"

"Malekith!" the whelp called out. He was all but dragging the female along with him, her feet scrabbling for purchase in the dust beside him. "I am Loki of Asgard, and I bring you a gift."

He threw her down at Malekith's feet. Malekith only allowed a raised eyebrow to show his surprise.

"A surprisingly generous gift from the house of Odin," Malekith said, releasing the girl and standing again. "So much so that I don't believe it. Why fight so hard to keep it from me only to turn it over now?"

A pained smirk twisted the corner of Loki's mouth, and grief filled his eyes. "I did not fight for the Aether. I fought for my mother." His voice cracked at her mention. He paused, visibly trying to collect himself. "You brought death and destruction to Asgard, it's true. But you would never have come if not for this wench. She awoke the Aether. She brought it to us, and with it, you. Because of her Asgard is in ruins and my mother is _dead!_ "

The last was screamed and the girl flinched away from him and in her fear, drew closer to Malekith.

"I cannot harm her while the Aether yet resides within her body," Loki continued. "I know not how to remove it. Take it. I have no need for it. Take it, and leave her to me."

She was crying now, pathetic creature. Crying and begging. "Loki don't, please. I'm sorry. I never meant for this to happen, I swear."

Malekith watched it all play out with hidden amusement. They were entertaining, he would give them that. There was however, still the matter of why a son of Odin would help an enemy, let alone one who caused him so much personal grief.

"Why should I believe you?" he asked, abandoning subterfuge. "You have every reason to hate me and my kind."

"And I do," Loki agreed. "But not as much as I hate her."

"What of your people, your realm? You have no love for them either?" Malekith watched the muscles along Loki's jaw working as he glared at the so-called wench. A lone tear escaped the corner of one eye.

"The only thing... the only person I loved in Asgard is gone." Loki raised his head, eyes burning with a rage Malekith knew well. A rage borne of having lost everything. "Take your vengeance, Malekith, I care not. I only ask that you let me have mine.

Malekith's gaze travelled to and fro between Loki and the girl. If this was a trick, he wasn't seeing it. The Aether's call was stronger than ever. He stooped low and grabbed the girl's chin, looking deeply into her eyes. Yes, the Aether was still inside her, and nothing had been done to damage or corrupt it. Already it was overwhelming the girl's body. If he did not claim it, it would burn her to ash from the inside out. Not that her fate concerned him. There was simply no reason to wait until then. And if there was yet some betrayal still looming, the Odinson would be easy enough to dispatch. The boy was outmatched in numbers and power. They wouldn't even need the Aether to prevail over him.

Reaching toward the girl, Malekith answered the Aether's call. He lifted his hand and with it, she rose into the air, skirts billowing in the wind. With a single twist of his wrist, the Aether came pouring out of her. Tendrils of red, writhing and twisting, seeking their new master. Through it all, the girl was silent, too terrified to do anything more than stare.

Once the Aether was fully free of her, Malekith let her drop, giving no care for where she landed. The Aether held his gaze, and with it his full attention. It was so beautiful, all that power just waiting for him. After so long, the glorious darkness would again shroud the universe. And this time, nothing would stand-

"Thor, _now!_ "

Malekith had only enough time to turn his head Loki's direction before a bolt of lightning struck him square in the chest.

~~~|~~~

_"What you said to Father before he..." Thor hesitated when Loki bristled at the reminder of the altercation. "You said to tell everyone she died. You were about to say more. What was it?"_

_"It doesn't matter," Loki said at last. "None of it matters."_

_With that, he turned and walked away._

_At least, he tried._

_For once, Thor was too quick. Loki couldn't make his escape before his brother seized him again, this time with a hand on each shoulder, forcing them to face each other._

_"Loki, she will live, I'm sure of it. She will live, thanks to you."_

She yet may not, also thanks to me, _Loki thought but didn't say._

 _"Father was wrong," Thor went on. "I would tell him so but I'm sure he already knows and would tell you himself if you gave him the chance. Now please, brother, please tell me what you are thinking. We need you. Asgard has not faced so great a threat in five thousand years and there is no one who understands it better than you. You know of the dark elves, you've studied everything there is to learn about the Aether. Please don't give in to despair now, not when you may be our best_ — _our_ only _hope."_

He's an idiot. _At first, that was all Loki could think. Staring into his brother's clear blue eyes and painfully earnest face, Loki's only thought was,_ he's an idiot. _How many times had Thor claimed he had no way with words? He had no clue, no idea whatsoever, of the power he did have. Where Loki could nearly always find the exact right words to elicit the response he wanted, Thor's tactic was simpler. Simpler, but no less effective. Sincerity. Complete and utter sincerity would succeed where even the cleverest of wordplay failed. Not even Loki, who was well-familiar with the art of manipulation could resist it._

_"Bor is long dead," he began, still unable to tear his gaze away from his brother's eyes. "Malekith cannot recompense himself on him, but he can punish Bor's line. Our line.That's why he was so willing to-"_

_An unbidden image of the sword plunging into Frigga's back filled his vision. He felt his own scream choked off in his throat._

_"To target Mother, yes," Thor prompted, dragging Loki away from the painful reverie._

_"...His forces remain here, though they are beyond our sight. If we let word be spread that she died, Malekith will not make another attempt on her, but more importantly, he will think he has tasted victory. He will be that much more confident even without the Aether in his grasp."_

_Thor's eyebrows furrowed. "But what does that gain us? If he feels more secure in his plans, he will try again to claim the Aether, will he not?"_

_"No, he won't have to."_

_"Why?"_

_"Because I'm going to give it to him."_

_Thor's features slackened with shock, then twisted with such rage that for a fleeting second, Loki was certain he was about to be struck again._

_"Loki-"_

_"It's killing her, brother," he hastened to add, "and I will not find a solution in time. Only Malekith knows how to remove it."_

_"If you turn her over, he has no reason not to strike her dead."_

_"She's dead if we do nothing, Thor. She won't survive the night."_

_The pained look on Thor's face confirmed that he knew the truth as well. Jane's mortal body would not last to the next day._

_"I swear to you, brother, I won't let her come to harm at Malekith's hand. I can play upon his confidence in our defeat and convince him to let her be."_

_Thor's gaze slid off to the side, mulling over Loki's words and not looking very happy at his own thoughts._

_"Brother, please. I can do this, you know I can."_ Please trust me, _Loki begged silently._ I have to do this.

_As if moved by the mute plea, Thor nodded his agreement. "And once the Aether is out of her, then what?"_

_Relief flooded Loki's chest, followed by a sudden wave of warmth. It had been so long since the two of them worked together on something. He hadn't noticed how much he missed it. Unable to stop a smile from spreading across his face, he said, "That's where you come in."_

~~~|~~~

With perfect accuracy, a bolt of lightning struck the center of Malekith's chest and Loki permitted himself a brief moment of unrestrained and rather indecent glee at the sight. Their enemy was thrown back nearly halfway to his ship and out of reach of the Aether. His foot soldiers were thrown into confusion at this sudden attack from a heretofore invisible enemy. Loki dropped the cloak hiding his brother, knowing very well how intimidating the sight of a vengeful Asgardian warrior could be. Thor did not disappoint.

His eyes, bright with anger and a lust for battle, looked as though they could emit lightning themselves. Muscles bulging beneath his armor and chain mail, Thor charged the elves with a roar, looking every inch the God of Thunder he was.

The elves recovered from their shock with impressive speed, but it wasn't fast enough. Thor was already on them. Though Loki would enjoy nothing more than watching his brother tear them apart, there was another matter he needed to attend to.

He took a quick step forward, reached out, and hoisted Jane to her feet. Her eyes were wide and fearful, like a rabbit caught in a snare. "Run, Jane," he said. "I will conceal you but you must distance yourself from the fight."

Loki let go of her but she remained where she was, numb with shock.

"I'm sorry, but there is no time to explain," he told her. "Now _run!_ "

His raised volume on the last word jolted her out of her stupor. The shock in her eyes turned to fury, and she opened her mouth to say something but as the urgency of the situation truly sank in, she closed it again and did as she was told. Loki watched her for the first few steps before shrouding her with the same cloaking spell he used for Thor. With her safety as assured as it could be, he was free to carry out the rest of his part.

It wasn't a lie that he didn't know how to extract the Aether from Jane's body. Once it was free, however, that he could work with. Now that Malekith was out of the way and his brother occupied the rest of his forces, he had a brief window to carry out his plan. His stupidly dangerous plan.

Stretching out both his arm and his seiðr, he called the Aether to himself.

Loki had no idea if the Aether would eventually do to him what it was doing to Jane or if once it was inside him he could expel it himself, facts of which he may have neglected to inform his brother. Thor would surely have protested such a risk, perhaps even insisted that he take in the Aether instead or that they find another way altogether. That was something Loki just couldn't allow. Not only was there no time for another plan, but he knew he had to do it himself. Since he failed to find the Aether before any harm was done, it fell to him to make up for it. It was a price he owed to Jane, to Asgard, to everyone. Above all, to his mother. If she had not hesitated to place herself in grave danger to protect them all, how could he do any less?

The amorphous blackish red cloud of the Aether remained hovering in the air just above him. A few tendrils reached down, as though considering him as host. Loki tried to be welcoming to it, forcing away any doubt or fear over the cost of doing so. It seemed to be working. The Aether drew ever so slightly closer, with more branches extending out to him. They were close, so close. A few more seconds, a few more inches, and the Aether would be out of Malekith's hands forever. His beloved darkness would never fall. The rest of Yggdrasil would watch the Convergence pass as it had before, with no inkling of how close they'd come to annihilation.

Loki felt the Aether responding to his call, brushing up against his own seiðr. Just a hint of so much power at the edge of his fingertips left him near breathless. His heart raced with exhilaration and his head spun as though he were intoxicated. And it was so close. If he could only stretch a little farther and take it-

Agony ripped through his body, exploding from his core. He froze, too overcome with the shock of it to even draw breath to scream. Lowering his chin to look down was such a strain he began to shake with the effort. Erupting from his abdomen was the long blade of an elven sword, its metallic sheen darkened with blood. His blood.

The blade began to slide backwards and the excruciating pain doubled. Loki fell to the ground, dimly aware over the hammering of his own heartbeat in his ears that someone was screaming. Was it him? He didn't think so. He was pretty sure he was laughing. This was just what they'd tried on his mother. He was going to die the same way. And he hadn't even gotten the Aether.

What could be funnier than that

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I warned you.


	8. Chapter 8

Loki's plan made Thor nervous. More than nervous. It scared him. They would have to come so close to delivering the Aether right to Malekith and put Jane in a frighteningly vulnerable position. The Aether had been protecting her but once it was gone she would possess no more than her usual mortal strength, possibly even less if the artifact was still weakening her. Loki gave his oath he would not allow her to be harmed and Thor had no doubt his brother would keep his word if it was in his power to do so. But even with his skill and cunning, Loki could not anticipate everything, and Malekith's power was not to be underestimated. It was a dangerous game Loki was playing, and through it all, the only thing Thor could do was watch.

Remaining on the sidelines while Loki acted out his charade was one of the hardest things he ever had to do. He knew if he gave away his presence too soon, it would ruin everything and probably get them all killed. That knowledge made it no easier to watch Loki walk straight up to Malekith and his soldiers—including one of the famed Kursed, the same beast who nearly killed their mother—without so much as a dagger in his hand or a sword on his hip. The gut clenching fear set his heart pounding a hard rhythm against his ribs. Staying back grew even more difficult when Jane started to cry. Hiding the truth from her was an unfortunate necessity lest Malekith sense their deception before it was time. At least, he agreed that it was necessary when Loki explained that part of the plan. Watching her tremble at Malekith's feet and hearing the quaking terror in her voice, however, Thor couldn't escape the thought that he was every bit as cruel as Malekith for putting her through it.

By the time Loki called for the attack, Thor was gripping Mjolnir so tight he felt the wooden handle groaning under the pressure. His lightning found Malekith sure enough and a wave of relief swept over him. The most dangerous part was over. Now for the rest.

The rest of the dark elves were stunned by his sudden assault, giving him ample opportunity to close the short distance and start dispatching them. Sparing just a quick glance in Loki's direction to make sure Jane had fled the fray, Thor set about destroying the elves. Images of the attack on Asgard flowed through his mind, with Thor making no effort to push them away. Each strike against the elves felt like retribution for the destruction they wrought on his home, his family. Thor was on the verge of losing himself in the fight, giving free rein to his less merciful instincts, until a sharp high sound reached his ears through the clash of weapons. A scream.

_Jane!_

With one sweep, Thor knocked the closest elves aside and spun on his heel, ready to defend the object of his affection. Only, Jane was in no danger from their foes. She was still a good distance away. If she was safe, then why...

No. That was wrong. He shouldn't be able to see her beneath Loki's cloak.

An icy feeling of dread wrapped itself around Thor's chest as he followed Jane's line of sight to where Loki stood. When last he saw, his brother was alone. That was no longer true.

A lone elf had broken off from the main group without either of them noticing. Somehow, it sneaked behind his brother and was even now pulling out the sword he drove through Loki's body. Loki fell to the ground writhing in agony. Then he went still.

Thor screamed his brother's name and was about to go to him but in those few moments of inattention, the remaining elves surrounded him. He dropped to his knees and drove Mjolnir into the ground. The resulting shockwave knocked them off their feet, buying Thor a few precious seconds. Taking full advantage of it, he hurled the hammer with all his might at the elf who attacked Loki. His aim was true. The elf fell and would not rise again. By the time the hammer returned to Thor's grasp, the rest of the elves had recovered. That, however, was not the worst problem.

The Aether, which had remained in the air above them, was now flowing toward Malekith.

How had he recovered so fast?

For a moment, fear and indecision paralyzed Thor. Loki was hurt, might even be dying. He needed help. But Thor also knew going to him would leave Malekith free to take the Aether. Trillions would die.

"I'm sorry, brother," he murmured.

Wasting no more time, Thor spun his hammer and took off, aiming to slam straight into Malekith. He was completely unprepared for the strength of Malekith's protector, the Kursed. With just one hand, it knocked him aside as easily as Thor might swat away an insect. The world spun in a dizzying circle around Thor for a few seconds before he crashed into the ground at great speed. The impact forced all the air from his lungs and made his vision go dark for a pair of heartbeats. It even shook Mjolnir loose from his grasp.

Head still reeling, Thor got to his feet with just enough time to watch the last of the Aether disappear into Malekith's body. Without waiting for the rest of his men, he headed back to his ship. Thor took to the air again but even as he did, he knew the distance was too great. Malekith and his Kursed disappeared behind a closing door before Thor could reach them. Moments later the ship was in the air. They had lost.

A brilliant flash of light caught Thor's eye. The bifrost touched down and deposited Odin, Sif and the Warriors, as well as a squadron of Einherjar. Knowing they would sort out the elves Malekith left behind, Thor headed straight for his brother.

Jane was at Loki's side already, trying to staunch his bleeding wound with a piece of material that looked to be torn from her own dress. Loki, always pale, was an ashen grey. His eyes were open but vacant. The cold dread that had previously wrapped around Thor's chest clenched even tighter.

"He needs help. And fast," Jane told him, her voice tight. Her shaking fingers were stained red.

Thor knelt down. "Let me take him."

"No," Odin said from above him.

"We must get him to the healing room," Thor insisted. "He-"

"I know," his father interrupted. "But he needs this first." He reached into a small satchel tied at his waist and withdrew a healing stone. "I prepare before going into battle."

Without needing to be told, Thor pulled Loki's breastplate off and ripped open the tunic underneath it, noting absently that there wasn't as much blood as he expected to find. Beside him, Odin crushed the stone in his hands and rubbed the dust into the wound.

"Turn him over," Odin said.

Thor rolled Loki onto his side and their father held him there while Thor tore away the rest of the tunic and leathers. There was the blood he was expecting. Loki's entire back was stained red. Odin rubbed more stone dust into the wound. Thor held his breath. If the blade that caused this was enchanted against healing as well...

It wasn't. Though it felt as if it took entirely too long to begin working, the bleeding slowed to a sluggish flow and the edges of the wound began a slow knitting back together.

By the time they turned him face up again, Loki's sporadic shallow breaths were deepening. He was not yet aware, having slipped fully into unconsciousness while they tended to him, but neither did he still appear to have one foot already through Valhalla's doors. Thor tried again to pick him up and again, Odin stopped him.

"I'll take him. You finish what you started."

Thor started to object—surely the Einherjar could handle the rest of Malekith's forces without him—but Odin silenced him with a steely glare. His father said nothing else as he gathered Loki into his arms and walked to a more open space where the bifrost could touch down. Jane looked back and forth between Thor and his father.

"Should I..."

"Go," Thor said. "You'll be safer there."

She hesitated for a moment, looking as if she was deciding something. When her mind was made up, she joined Odin. Just before the bifrost opened though, she gave Thor a look that made his heart sink. There were so many emotions swirling in her eyes, all of them unpleasant. Most prominent among them, though, was anger. As the bifrost snatched the three of them away, Thor couldn't help wondering what other damage their plan had wrought.

~~~|~~~

Awareness came gradually, like sun slowly burning through a thick morning fog. The first thing Loki felt as he began the long climb back into consciousness was a gentle stroking along his scalp. He wondered who it was that was petting him as if he were a cat. He thought about asking but the sensation was so surprisingly pleasant that he decided against it, just in case it made whoever it was stop. It was so soothing it began to lull him back to sleep as he sighed with pleasure.

"Ah, ah," said a warm voice that was very familiar but that Loki's muzzy brain couldn't quite place. "You've slept long enough, my darling."

_But I'm so tired,_  his protested in his sleepy mind. He was so tired and the bed was so soft. The pillow was all but whispering his name.

Wait. The voice. He knew that voice.

Loki worked his eyes open, which was no easy task when his eyelids seemed to want nothing more than to do the opposite. A face hovered above him, blurry in the dim fire light. After a few more laborious blinks, his sight cleared.

"Mother?"

Frigga was sitting in front of him on the bed, leaning forward to run her fingers through his hair. She grinned. "Who were you expecting?"

"I...you..." Try as he might, Loki could not form a coherent thought. Abandoning the idea, he reached up, took her hand from the top of his head and pressed the back of her fingers to his lips. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"You should be," she said. "That mad scheme of yours nearly got you killed."

"I... that's not... I mean, I am, but..."

She covered his hand with her other one. "What is it, dear?"

Loki swallowed thickly, shame clogging his throat. "I wasn't here. I should have been here."

"Here for what?"

The loving concern in her eyes was too much for him to bear when he knew he was responsible for her too-close brush with death. He closed his eyes and turned away. "I wasn't here when the attack happened. I thought the noise of battle was Thor and I ignored it. Had I not ventured out, I wouldn't have seen it at all. And you... I was almost too late."

At the sound of his mother's soft laugh, Loki cracked his eyes open again. She was shaking her head with a somewhat bemused smile on her lips. "And you feel guilty for that, do you? For something you _almost_  did."

Put that way it did sound silly but it didn't lessen what Loki felt. Not when the image of her being held at the mercy of two monsters while a sword drove into her back was still such a vivid one in his mind.

"Loki," Frigga sighed. "I knew the risk I was taking."

"You shouldn't have had to take it alone."

"Perhaps not, but it benefits no one to dwell on a past that cannot be changed. I certainly don't care to do so. Do you want to know what I have been thinking about?"

The question was probably rhetorical but Loki nodded anyway.

"I didn't know about the enchantment on the blade," she said. "It's not the sort of weapon the dark elves were known to use. From what Eir told me, had the wound been any deeper I would not have survived even to the healing room. You saved me, my son."

"But I-"

"You saved me," she repeated, carefully emphasizing each word.

Loki didn't notice the tears falling from his eyes until his mother wiped them away. For the first time since the dark elves' attack, he felt the full weight of all that happened truly sink in. He'd come so close to losing her. That awful prospect had hung like a thick black cloud over his thoughts, blocking out all light until the only thing he saw was darkness. But now the clouds were breaking. The relief of having her there and well again overwhelmed him until he couldn't stop the tears from flowing. Frigga used one of her hands to squeeze his while the other cradled his cheek.

"You shoulder too much of the burden, Loki," she told him. "You always have. It's time you learn to let go of that which is not yours to carry."

Loki didn't reply to her, not trusting his own voice. He didn't have any time to gather himself to give an answer either, because there came the sound of approaching footsteps. Loki looked up and saw his father at the entrance of the room.

"Are you well, my son?" Odin asked while he walked to the bed.

"I will be soon, I expect," he said, cringing at the trembling in his voice. Mercifully, neither of his parents drew attention to it.

"I take it you've finished speaking with Thor," Frigga said to Odin.

"I have."

She rose from the bed, smoothing her skirts as she did. "Then I suppose it is my turn."

With both of them standing over him now, Loki was suddenly very aware of his position below them. He felt far too much like a child again, staring up at his much larger parents. He made to rise, or at least sit upright, but only got as far as lifting his head before a sharp pain lanced through his gut. He stifled a whimper into a quiet gasp but it was no use. They still heard it.

"What are you doing, you foolish boy?" Frigga chided him. "It's only been a few hours since your father brought you back. You must stay abed a few hours more."

"I only-"

"I will sit on you if I must."

"I don't see how that would improve my healing," Loki grumbled to himself, letting his head fall back on the pillow.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Mother."

She gave him a stern look which only lasted a few moments before it dissolved into a smile. Leaning over him, she pressed a kiss to his forehead and ran her fingers through his hair one more time.

"I'll be back," she said. "And I expect to find you resting."

Loki nodded in reluctant agreement. Satisfied with that, Frigga left. He waited until he heard the door close behind her before looking at his father to say, "Help me up."

Odin raised an eyebrow. "If you think I'm foolish enough to defy your mother, you are sorely mistaken."

"I only wish to sit up. I have no intention of defying her either."

His father relented, much to Loki's relief. He suspected he knew what Odin was there to say and it wasn't to merely inquire after his health. If he could at least sit up, enduring what was to come would be easier. Well, perhaps not easier, but a little less intimidating.

By the time Odin finished propping up the pillows behind him, Loki was doubting the wisdom of his own plan. Just that small change in position left his entire upper body feeling as if it was on fire. While he sat with closed eyes and willed the pain to recede, he heard his father drag a chair over to the side of the bed and sit down. Then they both sat in silence until Odin finally broke it.

"Loki, when you first told me what you learned about the Aether, I reminded you that Asgard's safety was not your sole responsibility to bear."

The pause that followed lingered on until Loki realized his father was waiting for a response. "I remember, Father."

"You said you understood that."

"I did— _do_. I do."

"You also promised me you would not chase after another infinity stone on your own."

Loki remembered that conversation well and felt his face begin to warm as he realized he'd broken his word on both counts. He said nothing, but his father didn't wait this time.

"You have always had a talent for deception, my son, and so I cannot help but wonder if you were lying to me or to yourself."

"I don't know," Loki heard himself say. And he really didn't.

A year ago, he felt certain he knew what he needed to do. He had to find the Aether and see it put away somewhere no one would ever look for it, thus keeping Asgard and the rest of Yggdrasil safe. Malekith's attack only made his course clearer. He had to stop the elf and take control of the Aether at any cost. Yet now he felt none of that certainty. The once stark picture he saw had become muddled to a point where even he didn't know why his actions had made sense to him at the time.

His father looked down at his own hands folded in his lap. "And I must also wonder how much of what led you to do what you did today was my own doing."

Caught completely by surprise by the admission, Loki's gaze snapped up to regard Odin but his father was looking down at his hands folded in his lap.

"There was a time when you were unsure of yourself and our love for you. That was due in no small part to my carelessness. It seems I have been careless again."

A bit bewildered, Loki repeated "Careless?"

"Yes. I watched you conquer your doubts when you were young but there were times I thought I saw them surface again. The lapses were always so brief that I believed those feelings could not be so strong. But if one mistake on my part was enough to send you plunging headlong down a path of self-destruction, perhaps I was wrong."

It was Loki who had to look away now, even though doing so didn't halt the hot rush of shame that came from feeling so utterly exposed. Even he wasn't sure it was the truth when he said, "I was not seeking death."

"You weren't trying hard to avoid it, either," his father returned. "You could have taken an entire legion of warriors with you, yet you confronted Malekith alone."

"Malekith is a seiðman. He would sense the illusion if I tried to conceal a force that size."

"Then have them assemble on the bifrost and await a signal for Heimdall to send them to you."

"I had Thor," Loki offered weakly, aware of how feeble an excuse it was.

"Loki," Odin sighed. "This must stop. You have no need to prove yourself or prove that you deserve our love."

"I know." The words came out in an almost panicked rush.

His father wasn't convinced. "Yes, but do you believe it? Your actions, and not just those of today, would suggest otherwise. I was unreasonable with you today, I know. It was inexcusable. But in turn, your reaction was to rush off into a confrontation more likely to get you killed than anything as though saving us single-handedly even if it be by your death was the only way to set things right."

Loki opened his mouth to deny it but he couldn't, not honestly. Not when he spent an entire year in an increasingly frantic search for the Aether as though the fate of all nine realms rested on his shoulders alone. Not when he had been completely willing to surrender his life in order to capture the Aether after his unsuccessful quest had culminated with the dark elf attack. Of course the galaxy would be safer with the Aether secure but it wasn't only the fear of it landing in Malekith's hands that drove him.

"I thought I failed you all," he said softly, eyes fixed on his own fingers clenching the bed cover between them.

From the corner of his eye, he saw his father nod. "I guessed as much. But tell me, my son, just what did you think would happen if you failed?"

"I don't know."

"I think you do"

Memories from Loki's youth surfaced in his mind. Memories of watching Thor and their friends gleefully departing for another adventure without him; of a father who seemed cold and distant; of wanting desperately to confide in his mother but holding back for fear of alienating her too; of feeling utterly alone in the world.

"I don't know," Loki said again, but he knew the lie was a poor one. He swiped at a tear that escaped from the corner of his eye with an angry jerk of his hand. His father caught his hand on the way down and held it firmly until Loki looked at him.

"Loki, you are my son. That is all you ever need be, and the only reason I will ever need to love you. No failure, no mistake, no disappointment could ever change that."

More tears slid down Loki's cheeks, too fast for him to wipe them away before they fell.

"I'm sorry I struck you," his father went on. "All the more so now that I see the damage I caused. And I'm sorry I haven't done more in the past to reassure you when you needed it."

"I'm sorry as well," Loki said. "I was a fool."

"We are all fools in matters of the heart, my son. You would do well to remember that when your heart makes you doubt."

Loki managed a brief nod. "I'll try."

"Good." With one last squeeze of his hand, Odin let go. "Now for mercy's sake, lie back down before your mother sees you up and thrashes both of us."

A wobbly laugh burst from Loki's mouth and for once, he did as he was told.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to give you all a heads up. I'm going on a little trip at the beginning of March so if the next chapter is a little bit delayed, don't worry. I'm still on it. It's just going to take a little longer.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm baaaack! I didn't mean to be gone so long but now we're back to our regularly scheduled programming. In today's episode we have some brother feels. But first, a certain astrophysicist has something to say.

The ground felt strange under Thor's feet. Or, perhaps it wasn't really the ground. Perhaps it was only in Thor's mind. He just couldn't remember the last time he had been so thoroughly rocked back on his heels. The past hours had been filled with such upheaval that he still felt unsure of his footing. With the devastation of the dark elf attack and subsequent loss of the Aether came the near loss of both his mother and brother. A part of him was overjoyed at their respective recoveries but it was tempered by another part that reminded him that others were not so fortunate. Large sections of the palace still lay in ruins and it was not unique in that respect. Many of the surrounding buildings suffered a similar fate. It would be days before the full toll of the attack was known. And the fight was not yet over, not now that Malekith possessed the Aether.

It was difficult enough knowing that he and Loki had failed in that regard but after returning to Asgard, Thor was on the receiving end of lectures from both his parents. By the time they were through explaining in excruciating detail the foolishness of his deeds, he was beginning to wish it was he who had been stabbed through the chest, not Loki. Surely that had to be less painful.

He had yet to shake off the feeling when he went looking for Jane, his first chance to do so since returning from Svartalfheim. He found her in the same room where she had been before their little sojourn to the dark world. The moment their eyes met, Thor knew his trouble was not over. She came at him with a determined stride.

"Jane, I-" was as far as he got before Jane slapped him across the face. The hurt was negligible but the shock of it, that would take longer to fade.

"That's for holding out on me," she declared. "Why the hell didn't you two tell me the plan? I deserved to know."

A childish impulse to lay all the blame on his brother rose and died within Thor with equal speed. Though it was his brother's plan, Thor was a grown man capable of independent thought. He was fully aware of what Loki intended and he made the choice to go along with it of his own free will. Now he would accept the consequences of that choice.

"Loki thought... _we_ thought if you knew the full truth that Malekith might see through the ruse. He had to believe that Loki was betraying you. If he suspected your fear wasn't genuine-"

"My fear?" Jane interrupted. "Let me tell you something about my fear, Thor. My body was invaded by a quasi-sentient relic with the power to invert the makeup of all the matter in the universe. I could feel it overwhelming every part of me, including my brain, and I knew despite what you said that none of you had a way to stop it. I didn't need any help in the fear department. I was doing fine on my own."

Thor bowed his head, feeling his guilt over everything begin to grow, but Jane was not yet finished.

"And then you let your brother haul me off to an empty wasteland and throw me at the feet of the person I just watched decimate half this city and personally almost killed your mother. Believe me, pal, I would have been plenty scared then even if I knew the whole plan."

Thor nodded, waiting for the tirade to continue. Only, it didn't. Jane was instead looking at him with her arms crossed and an expectant expression on her face.

"Well?" she said.

"...Well what?"

She gaped at him for a moment before shaking her head. "Thor, I swear to god, if the next words out of your mouth aren't an apology-"

"I'm sorry," he rushed to say.

"For?"

"For not being honest with you."

"And?" she prompted, but Thor couldn't think of what else to add. At his continued silence, Jane sighed. "You don't even really understand why I'm upset, do you?"

"Perhaps I don't," Thor conceded, almost bracing himself for another slap.

Jane turned away from him. Lifting both her hands up to her head, she ran her fingers through her hair before giving it a brief tug and taking several deep breaths through her nose. After smoothing her hair down again, she turned her gaze back on him.

"The Aether was inside _me_. It was killing  _me_. And when you came up with a possible solution, you didn't tell me about it, you just went ahead and did it. What if it didn't work or Malekith had just killed me instead?"

"I would never have let that happen," Thor assured her, but her response was another exasperated sigh.

"That's not the point. You and Loki made a decision that would have life or death consequences for me and you did it without even consulting me. I mean, I know there's a hell of a lot more at stake here than just me but this is my life we're talking about, Thor. My _life_. I have a right to know when it's being put on the line. God, is this what you guys do with the lower realms? You just decide what's best and then do it without any input from them?"

"No!"

Jane cocked a disbelieving eyebrow at him.

"Well, at times, perhaps," he said. "But Asgard is the chief protector of the Nine Realms. It is our responsibility to ensure their continued safety"

"Tell that to Malekith's people," Jane retorted dryly.

The glib response rankled Thor. "I am not my grandfather, Jane," he told her, his voice low and edged with anger. "And whatever you or I may think of his actions, neither of us were there. It would be more than unfair to condemn him when we cannot truly put ourselves in his stead."

Jane's posture deflated a little, her righteous anger diminishing. "That's true, I suppose," she admitted a bit grudgingly. "Though I still don't like the idea of Asgard unilaterally deciding what's best for everyone."

"Well, what would you have us do, solicit opinions from each realm on how best to defeat the dark elves? Gather all their representatives together for a summit while Malekith draws ever closer to victory? Is that what your rulers do for each decision they must make for their populace?"

Jane thought in silence for a few moments. "I guess it would be a little impractical to ask for input from a few trillion people," she said. "My government can hardly get anything done and we only have a few hundred million to deal with. And I know there are a lot of times when they make decisions for us that we don't get a say in, especially when it comes to national security." She paused again. "It still doesn't make what you did to me right."

"I realize that now and I am truly sorry," Thor apologized. "Our actions were well-intentioned but ill-considered. I should have known better than to try and decide your fate without your knowledge. It won't happen again."

"It better not," Jane replied, giving him a half-hearted punch on the arm while a tentative smile spread across her face.

Thor held his arms out wide. "May I?"

Jane nodded and stepped into the embrace.

"I'm so glad you are all right," he murmured, lips brushing the top of her head.

"Me too." They stood together for a moment before Jane leaned back to look up at him. "I'm sorry, I never asked. How is Loki?"

"Healing, thank the Norns."

"Can I see him?"

"That depends," Thor said, feeling himself smirk. "Do you plan on striking him as well?"

A snort of laughter burst from Jane's mouth. "As if I could actually hurt you guys."

The two of them walked hand in hand to Loki's chambers. They arrived just as Odin emerged from within.

"Is he awake?" Thor asked.

"He is, though he must rest a few hours more or your mother will have all our heads."

"Would that not defeat the purpose of healing him?" Thor asked wryly.

"Thor, I learned many years ago that questioning her logic seldom leads to anything but more confusion."

"I heard that," Frigga said from some distance down the corridor where she was walking toward them.

"Go," Odin urged in a theatrical whisper. "Save yourselves."

Thor made a show of ushering Jane inside Loki's chamber and closing the door behind them as though he were shielding them from a great danger. Once inside, he led the way through the outer room into the bed chamber where they found Loki still abed, just as fearful of Frigga's edict as the rest of them. As happy and relieved as Thor was that his brother survived, he still felt a painful clench in his chest when he thought of how close Loki came to death. Even completely healed, he still bore the signs of the ordeal. His complexion was whiter than his bed sheets and he bore dark smudges under his eyes as though he hadn't slept for many days. The tightness in Thor's chest eased a little when took a closer look at Loki's eyes, though. They were as clear and alert as ever, if a little red and puffy at the edges.

"How do you fare brother?" Thor asked.

"Well enough, all things considered," Loki said. "And you? I'm afraid I rather lost track of you after I, well..." he trailed off waving a hand over his torso.

"I was unharmed."

Loki cocked his head to one side and looked past him. "And the lady?"

Thor looked to his side expecting to find Jane, but she wasn't there. He turned around and saw her hanging back by the door.

"Me? I'm fine. It's fine. Everything's fine," she rambled.

Thor stared at her. The confident woman who took him to task minutes ago for presuming to make her decisions for her had vanished. In fact, she almost appeared to be shrinking away from Loki's gaze.

"No, I daresay it isn't," Loki sighed. With a grunt and visible discomfort, he propped himself up on one elbow. Holding out his other hand, he said, "Jane, come here. Please."

Jane hesitated a long moment but did as Loki requested. Thor stepped aside to let her by and joined her beside the bed. When she was close enough, Loki grasped Jane's hand with his outstretched one. She flinched but didn't pull away.

"First," Loki began, "let me say I have been an entirely unmitigated ass. You did nothing deserving of my treatment of you and even if you had, it would be no justification for it. My behaviour was unbefitting a prince and inexcusable for a friend. You have my most sincere apologies."

Jane blinked in surprise. "Thank you."

"Second, I'm sorry for putting you through such a dreadful ordeal to remove the Aether. I didn't even think what what it would be like for you believing I had betrayed you to an enemy and for that, I can only beg your forgiveness. I promise I will do everything in my power to once again be worthy of your trust."

There was a lengthy pause after Loki finished. Just when Thor began to wonder if Jane was all right, she spoke.

"Thor," she said. " _That_ was an apology."

~~~|~~~

When Eir at last pronounced Loki well enough to get out of bed, he was profoundly relieved. He was not unaccustomed to long periods of stillness but when such inactivity was forced upon him, he loathed it. Having to remain in bed while knowing Malekith possessed the Aether and was at that very moment making his way to Midgard was torturous.

Rising from his bed took more effort that he liked and hurt more than he would ever admit but he pushed himself on in spite of it. All of his research into the Aether was resting on his desk, his intended destination. Though his steps were slow and laboured, he made the brief journey without collapsing and sank into the chair with a relieved sigh. He rested a moment to catch his breath, one hand pressed over his still healing scar. The effort of crossing even that short distance left his his insides throbbing almost as though the blade were still there, reminding him he was not yet hale. Once it subsided he turned his attention back to his research.

Before his focus had been on the Aether's possible location and a means of tracing its energy, efforts made superfluous by Jane finding it first. A fresh pang of frustration over his wasted effort struck but he tried to push it down. He only partly succeeded. He no longer bore Jane any malice but he could not help but feel irked that someone discovered by pure accident what he could not after a year of focused searching. What good was study and learning if the answers could be found merely by stumbling over them? Why should he even bother when clearly all it took was—

Loki cut off his train of thought. That was precisely the kind of thinking that gave rise to the doubts of which his father spoke. Doubts which, in turn, could lead to reckless actions like a desperate bid to reclaim the Aether by himself to make up for failing to stop an attack that even Heimdall had not seen coming. Asgard and the rest of the Nine didn't need another reckless, desperate scheme. They needed a real solution, preferably a permanent one, and he wasn't going to find it if he was preoccupied with his own shortcomings.

Closing his eyes, Loki took a deep breath and did his best to banish the lingering darkness that still hovered in his thoughts. He didn't succeed, not fully, but he managed to push it to the very back of his mind where it was not such a distraction. He opened his eyes with a renewed sense of determination, reached for the closest tome, and began reading.

An hour later, he had little to show for it except for a headache that had started behind his eyes, spread up into his skull, and was now working its way down his neck and into his spine. He was about to move on to yet another volume when a knock sounded at his chamber door. With a wave of his hand, he released the lock on it, allowing it to swing open. A set of heavy footfalls sounded in the outer room.

"What is it, Thor?" Loki called out. He felt a flicker of satisfaction when Thor's steps hitched slightly.

"You knew it was me?" Thor asked as he walked in.

"I always know. No one else in the palace walks the all the grace of a stampeding bilgesnipe."

Thor came to stand next to the desk. "I see. I suppose you are back to normal then."

Loki leaned back in his chair, easing his stiff back. "Yes. Eir finally allowed me to get up, though she made me swear to do nothing more strenuous than walk around the room."

"Actually," Thor said with a smirk, "I was alluding to your words. They were practically dripping with honey when you spoke to Jane. It made me suspect you were still not well. But 'stampeding bilgesnipe' has a more familiar ring to it. I'd rather grown used to such flattery from you of late."

His earlier satisfaction was dulled by a twinge of shame. "I really have been unfair to you, haven't I?"

"No more unfair than I was impatient with you. What say you, shall we declare a truce?"

"We might as well, considering we may all be turned to ash and dust tomorrow. Best to face the end having put to rest such trivial things."

"Loki," Thor chided. "You must learn to not always imagine the worst possible outcome. Malekith was stopped once before. It can be done again."

Loki reached back and started massaging his sore neck with one hand, wincing a little when the movement pulled at the still tender scar below his sternum. "I'm not so sure. The Aether makes him more powerful now than he was then and he knows how to wield it. The uncontrolled bursts from Jane are mere sparks compared with the inferno he could unleash. Our best chance of defeating him would be to remove it and the only way I know how to do that is to kill him, which may not even be possible now."

Thor thought in silence for a moment. "He may be strong, brother, but he is not invincible. And the Midgardians are cleverer than you think. Together, surely we can find a way to defeat him."

"I hope you're right," Loki said, giving up on his ineffective neck massage and letting his hand drop into his lap. "What brought you here? I assume you had a purpose other than idle talk."

"I do," Thor replied. "Jane and I are leaving for Midgard soon. We must help the mortals prepare."

"I suppose I should ready myself to depart as well." Loki made to get up but searing hot pain lanced through his back. His knees buckled and he fell back down into his chair. He tried again to rise but Thor stopped him with a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Loki, stop. You are not coming."

His eyes flew to his brother, fury surging through him. "After everything that's happened, after Asgard and the palace and Mother, after I nearly died, you now expect me to sit back while-"

"I said, _stop_."

The command, and it was a command, was stated with such authority Loki fell reflexively silent as if it was an edict from the All-Father himself. In that moment, he glimpsed the king his brother would one day be.

"Did I not just tell you that you mustn't always leap to the worst possible outcome every time?" Thor asked. Scolded was more like it.

"You did," Loki conceded with reluctance.

"Then do you think perhaps there is a chance you have done so?"

Loki didn't say anything but Thor didn't seem to need a reply.

"You are not coming _like this_ ," he explained. "The Convergence will not reach it's peak for another half a day. Malekith will have no need to show himself before then which means you have half a day to rest and gather your strength. I know you wish to avenge all that has happened today, I do as well. And I would gladly have you by my side as we defeat Malekith, but only if you are hale. Exerting yourself prematurely will only slow your healing and who would you be helping then, brother?"

Thor paused and knelt down so he was no longer standing over Loki. He grasped the back of Loki's neck and carried on speaking in a much gentler tone.

"I nearly lost you today. I've never been more frightened than when I saw you fall. I will not let it happen again, and if all it takes to prevent it is letting you rest and recover then that is little price to pay. So rest, my brother. Let yourself recover. Once you have, I will welcome you at my side and together we will vanquish Malekith once and for all." 

Loki sheepishly let his gaze fall from Thor's. Of course that was what he meant. It should have been obvious. Thor was no longer that arrogant brat who didn't want his irritating younger brother tagging along on his quests. He hadn't been for a long time. His brother was right, he truly did need to learn not to always think the worst.

One corner of Loki's mouth quirked into a half-smile. "I think perhaps I should relinquish the title of Silvertongue to you, brother. It seems to suit you better than me now."

His brother laughed. "Perhaps. Heimdall did tell me the Convergence would bring all manner of strange occurrences. This must be one."

"It must," Loki replied, his half-smile growing into a real one. "It's certainly more plausible than you developing such wisdom on your own."

Thor laughed again and reached up to ruffle his hair. Loki slapped his hand away, laughing himself by the time he made contact. All of a sudden, Thor's expression sobered.

"Loki, promise me something."

"What?"

"Promise you will not follow to Midgard unless you are well enough to fight. If you are still not at your full strength by the time the peak arrives, stay here."

Though he was deeply touched by Thor's plea, Loki shook his head. "You cannot expect me to sit by while you and the others risk your lives."

"You've already risked your life, and look where it got you. It is enough, brother. Let others take up the burden now."

"I-"

"Promise me. Please," Thor implored him. "Loki, when you fell on Svartalfheim, I feared I would never see you rise again. If I didn't know before, I do now—I cannot bear to lose you."

Pinned there by Thor's piercing blue eyes, Loki felt all his objections die one by one under his gaze. It was too easy to imagine what his brother must have felt seeing him almost succumb to his wounds. He could feel the grief and fear in Thor's eyes echoing in his own heart. After all, he felt exactly the same watching helplessly as their mother was almost struck down.

"Only if you promise me something in return," he said.

"Anything."

"Promise you will return."

Thor's expression turned slightly quizzical.

"I could not bear to lose you either, you dolt," Loki told him.

Thor smiled at that but somehow the expression still managed to be a solemn one. He rose and held out his arm. Loki grasped his forearm and Thor did the same to him. 

"It is a promise," Thor said. "Farewell, brother."

"Farewell," Loki replied. "Be safe."

"You as well." Thor stared to leave but Loki stopped him.

"Wait." He pawed through the books on his desk until he found a small leather-bound one. "Notes on my research," he explained. "Jane might find something useful in them."

Thor took the book almost reverently and, much to Loki's relief, didn't say anything about his change of attitude toward Jane. "Thank you. I'm sure it will be a great help."

Neither of them said anything more as Thor left. When the door closed behind his brother, an uneasy chill ran down Loki's spine. It continued to trouble him in the hours that followed. As much as tried to listen to his brother's advice and not conjure the worst possible outcomes, he couldn't help but wonder if Thor might not be able to keep his promise after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the last talk-y chapter before the big finale. Are you ready? ;)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, remember how I said at the end of the last chapter that that was the last of the long, talky stuff before the big showdown? Turns out, I was kind of wrong about that. A while back, I shuffled some things around and I forgot that I took a scene from an earlier chapter and put it into this one, which means there was more talking in it than I remembered. But don't worry, we do get to the fight in the end.

"And how did you lose your pants again?" Darcy asked, making no effort at all to hide her amusement at the idea of a world-renowned astrophysicist running around Stonehenge in his tighty-whities.

Upon leaving the police station, Darcy and Ian caught Coulson and Erik up on what happened with Jane and Thor. Not that there was much to tell. The two of them had jetted off without bothering to explain where she'd been and there had been no word since. After that, there was some kind of video conference with SHIELD, who had picked up the same disturbances Jane was chasing but were a little short on useful information about what was actually happening. Unfortunately, the floating cement truck and the magic stairwell—which the SHIELD geeks were nowhere near excited enough about in Darcy's opinion—was pretty much all they knew. That was when Erik dropped the bombshell. Apparently there was some kind of crazy interstellar madness headed their way that was going to wreak all kinds of havoc that he maybe had a way to minimize. Maybe.

Once he told SHIELD everything he knew, the three civilians were promptly booted from the call. Coulson had gone down the hall and shut himself in the room farthest from the kitchen and continued with his super-secret conversation, leaving the the rest of them with not much to do but get to the bottom of Erik's pantless escapades. The trio was seated around the kitchen table in Jane's rented flat. It was well past midnight but no one seemed inclined to sleep, not after the wild day they'd had.

"The spike on one of my gravometric rods caught my pant leg and ripped it open."

"So naturally you just took them off."

Erik sighed. "I thought I had extra clothes in the car. Of course, that was when the police showed up."

"And arrested you for vandalizing Stonehenge. In your underwear."

Erik just shrugged while Darcy and Ian glanced at each other. They managed to last two whole seconds before they both burst out laughing. They were still laughing when Coulson reappeared. It was freaky how he did that. No one ever seemed to see or hear him come and go, he was just suddenly there.

"Doctor Selvig, tell me again about this impending event."

Selvig sat up a little straighter in his chair. "The Nine realms rotate on a five thousand year cycle. Once a cycle, the worlds align. Normally they're all separate but during the alignment, everything is connected. All nine realms are passing through each other. Gravity, light, even matter is crashing from one world to another.

Darcy stole a glance at Coulson, who was nodded along with Erik's explanation. "Dude, don't even pretend you understood what that means."

"I do spend a lot of time with our scientists, Ms. Lewis," he told her. "They've picked up anomalies like what the three of you described all over the United Kingdom. So far, no serious damage has been done, but they tell me it won't stay that way."

"They're right," Erik said. "The anomalies will continue to spread across the world the closer we get to the peak of the event. Five thousand years ago the effects would merely be disruptive but today, with the size and population density of modern civilization, it will be cataclysmic. My gravometric spikes should stabilize the focal point so the alignment and the other worlds just pass us by."

Darcy clapped her hands together. "Great. Where is it?"

Erik reached up and rubbed one hand on the back of his neck. "I had some data that suggested Stonehenge. The readings I gathered there indicate it's a significant location but it's not the focal point. I'll have to start again."

"I guess you better get to work then, Doctor."

Darcy and Ian got up from the kitchen table to leave him room to work while Coulson pulled his disappearing act again, vanishing without a sound. She settled on the couch with Ian and turned on the tv. She pretended not to notice the way he inched closer to her over the next hour until their thighs were almost touching. If he was anyone else, she'd tease him mercilessly for it but he was so sweetly shy about the whole thing she couldn't bring herself to do it. She just had this image of him closing off like a turtle disappearing into its shell and never speaking to her again and the thought made her sad. So instead of teasing, she shifted so she was leaning against him, closing the last little bit of distance separating them and resting her head on his shoulder. She couldn't see it, but she could practically feel him grinning.

Over at the table, things weren't going so well. Selvig was poring over books and computer readouts and emitting an array of frustrated noises. That went on for another hour before he got up with an irritated grunt and headed down the hall to the room where Jane kept her research material.

"That didn't sound good," Ian whispered.

"Nah, he's just a drama queen," Darcy replied at a normal volume. "Plus, he's probably worried about Jane."

She felt a fresh pang of worry. They still had no idea what happened to Jane while she was missing or what the deal was with her and the smashed up police cars or what happened after Thor whisked her away. It was like they were stuck in a hospital waiting room with nothing to do but sit there until there was news, except it was worse because Jane wasn't just down the hall, she was on another planet, and they had no idea when or even _if_ they'd hear anything about her. Coulson claimed not to know anything more than they did, though given who he was and who he worked for, he probably wouldn't tell them if he did. Erik at least had something productive to fill the time. All Darcy could do was channel surf, flipping through the few stations for the eleventh time hoping in vain to find something interesting that she missed the first ten.

Coulson emerged from wherever it was he went when he pulled his David Copperfield act. "Where's Doctor Selvig?"

Darcy pointed down the hall.

"Has he made any progress?"

"Didn't sound like it," she said. "Unless unintelligible grumbling is a good sign."

"Maybe we should all call it a night," Ian suggested. "Start again in the morning."

Coulson shook his head. "There was another incident, this one in central London. A flock of starlings-"

"Murmuration," Ian sad softly.

Darcy craned her neck to look at him. "Muh-muh what now?"

"The starlings. A group of starlings is a murmuration. My dad used to take me bird watching as a kid."

"Nerd."

Coulson continued as if the interruption hadn't happened. "-disappeared mid-flight and reappeared out of the ground. We need to find the focal point and stabilize it before a major incident occurs and there's mass panic."

A light knock sounded at the door.

"Are you expecting someone?" Coulson asked, right hand already poised over his sidearm.

"Chill out, Rambo. The police don't even carry guns around here."

Darcy got up and went to the door. She opened it and was met by a few familiar faces along with some unfamiliar ones.

"Sorry," Jane said by way of greeting. "I don't know what happened to my- _oof!_ "

She was cut off by Darcy throwing her arms around her neck. "I'm so glad you're back. The world is going crazy."

"I guess it's good we're here then," Jane replied into her shoulder.

Darcy let her go. "I'm serious. The stuff we saw at the warehouse, it's spreading and... wait, what are you wearing? Were you partying up there?"

Jane looked down at her gown and when she looked up, her expression had turned dark. "No. We were definitely not partying."

"Are you okay?" Darcy asked, worried by her sudden seriousness.

"It's been a long day."

"But that whole thing with the red stuff and-"

"It's gone."

The terse reply told Darcy she shouldn't ask any more, so she turned her attention to the others. "Welcome back, Muscles. Who are your friends?"

Thor smiled. At least he was in a better mood. He gestured a tall dark-haired woman who dwarfed Darcy. "This is Lady Sif, the fiercest warrior in all of Asgard."

It was a good thing Sif smiled or she'd be crazy intimidating with her ridiculous height and the double pointed spear thing she held in one hand. Actually, no, she was intimidating even with the smile.

"This rogue is Fandral," Thor said, moving on to the blond man with the goatee standing next to Sif. "There is no one better with a blade."

Fandral smiled too but his was slightly different from the one Sif offered. It was a little too smooth to be genuinely charming or friendly. It was made worse by the way he looked her up and down. No way was he not mentally undressing her. And not making much of an effort to not look like it, either.

"My lady," he said, stepping forward. He took her hand and kissed the back of it. Even that innocent gesture had a lascivious bent to it.

"Easy there, Valentino," Darcy replied, drawing her hand back. "Nowadays we just _shake_ hands."

"How frightfully dull," Fandral returned with a lop-sided grin.

"And this," Thor jumped in before anyone else could speak again, "is Volstagg."

To Darcy's enormous relief, Volstagg didn't try to copy Fandral's gesture. She wasn't keen to find out how his long, curly beard would feel against her hand. Instead, he just gave her a little bow.

"I'm Darcy," she told the newcomers. "That's Ian and Agent Coulson."

"Phil," Coulson amended. "It's good to see you again, Thor. And you Doctor Foster. Especially now."

"Why, what's happened?" Jane asked.

"Ms. Lewis was only exaggerating a little. We've been tracking the progress of an interstellar event that's causing problems here. I'm sure Doctor Selvig would welcome your help dealing with it."

Jane's eyebrows furrowed. "The Convergence is already manifesting here?"

Coulson raised an eyebrow in turn. "You're aware of it, then."

"Yes, but we didn't see any signs on Asgard," Thor said.

"Midgard is the center of the Convergence," Jane explained. "It makes sense that its effects would start here and then radiate outward. You mentioned Erik is working on this?"

"He thinks he has a way to stabilize the event at its focal point, but he hasn't found it yet."

"I've got it!" came a distant and very excited voice. Erik came barrelling out of Jane's office with his arms full of books and maps. "I've got it. I can't believe it took me so long to see."

He dumped everything on the table and looked up which was when he noticed there were many more people in the room now than when he left.

"Jane!" he exclaimed, lunging at her and gathering her into a bear hug. "I'm so glad you're here. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, smiling for the first time since arriving.

Erik let go of her to shake Thor's hand and after a hasty introduction to the others, got down to business.

"It occurred to me this has happened before. Thousands of years ago and the ancient civilizations were there to see it. All the great constructions, the Mayans, the Chinese, the Egyptians, they all made use of the gravitational effects of the Convergence. They left us a map."

He spread out a map of Great Britain and started marking off various spots. Then he connected the lines across the country. They all intersected at the same point.

"Greenwich," Ian said in disbelief.

Coulson stared at the map. "Damn. I was hoping it would be somewhere less populated. People are going to panic."

Unlike him, Darcy was watching the Asgardians as they exchanged a grave look. "What, what is that? Why are you looking at each other like it's worse than we think?"

"Because it _is_ worse than you think," Thor told her.

"Of course it is. Why did I ask?" she muttered.

"That stuff you saw come out of me, that was caused by an infinity stone," Jane said.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

She went on to explain what the red stuff, the Aether, was and what it could do. When she finished, Thor told them about a crazy scheme they'd come up with that was supposed to both get it out of Jane and stop some alien dude who had a serious grudge against Asgard and the universe in general from using it himself. They only succeeded at one out of two. Alien dude then made off with the thing after one of his minions almost killed Thor's brother.

"Malekith seeks to finish what he began so many years ago," Thor said at the end of the tale.

Picking up the story again, Jane added, "And he's going to do it here. Earth is in the middle of the Nine realms, they're all connected through us. From what I read in Loki's notes, firing off the Aether here will magnify its impact. With each new realm it reaches, the effects will be magnified."

"What effects?" Darcy asked, having not learned her lesson about asking questions with terrible answers.

"It will be like the laws of physics just cease to exist. The fabric of reality will tear itself apart."

"So... bad."

"It is, indeed," Thor said. "However, now we know where Malekith is going to be and when. We will be ready for him."

Coulson crossed his arms over his chest. "Thor, I need you to level with me. If Malekith can weaponize an infinity stone, can you actually beat him?"

Muscles drew himself up to his full height. "I swore an oath to protect this world. Even if we must fight to the death, I will see it done."

If that was meant to be reassurance, it didn't feel like it to Darcy. Not when it left her with a sinking feeling that it was going to take exactly that to save them all.

~~~|~~~

Morning dawned after a mostly sleepless night. Jane and Erik were up 'til the wee hours of the morning modifying devices of his invention to minimize and take advantage of the disturbances brought by the Convergence. As for Thor, he spent the time discussing possible strategies with his fellow Asgardians. Their efforts were somewhat hampered by not knowing exactly how Malekith would make his appearance and by the fact that the best strategist in Asgard was absent. Thor often caught himself looking to his side where his brother was so often to be found. He would start to wonder why Loki hadn't contributed to the discussion only to remember he wasn't there at all. It left Thor feeling as though he were missing a part of himself.

Though his brother's lack felt strange, he was also relieved that Loki had kept his word and not come to Midgard while he was yet healing. Thor hadn't said it aloud to anyone, but he hoped his recovery would take longer than the battle. He was sure it would insult Loki if he knew but Thor never entirely stopped thinking of him as his little brother. They were both grown, it was true, and each very powerful in their own right. In fact, he knew there were areas in which Loki far outpaced him. Even so, he still felt it was his duty to protect him. It was a duty he forced himself to ignore at Loki's assistance in allowing his brother to face Malekith alone. The idea of watching him facing such danger again so soon was unthinkable. He felt a surge of guilt when he thought of how his friends were about to charge into that danger themselves, yet he was not quite as burdened by their fates as he was his brother's. There shouldn't have been such a difference, he knew. A commander cannot decide that certain warriors have more value than others and one day, he would be the supreme commander of Asgard's forces. When the time came, he would have to be willing to send his friends and yes, even his loved ones, into danger, or even to their deaths.

That time was not yet, however, and Thor allowed himself the luxury of being glad his brother was safely away from the battle. Of course, if Thor and the others failed, Asgard would be no safer than anywhere else on Yggdrasil, so they must not fail.

As the appointed time grew near, they all climbed into two of the mechanized conveyances that were everywhere on Midgard. Many of the ones in this part of the realm were so small he doubted that he or anyone of Asgardian stature would fit inside them. The one driven by Coulson was much larger, though, and even Volstagg and his girth easily fit. Jane, Erik, Darcy and Ian somehow managed to squeeze into Jane's much smaller one. Thor thought it unwise to allow the mortals to join in such a battle knowing just how powerful their foe was but they would not hear of being left behind. Erik and Jane said they best understood the tools needed to stabilize the effects of the Convergence and that they could not reliably teach the others what to do in so short a period of time. That may have been part of it, but Thor suspected it was more to do with the natural desire to defend their home, and though he didn't like it, he couldn't fault them for it either.

Their small convoy arrived at the focal point with little time to spare. There was no sign of Malekith as yet, but they remained on guard anyway. Since their enemy could hide his ship from sight, there would be precious little time to react once it appeared. While Thor directed Sif, Fandral and Volstagg to various strategic points, Coulson left them to go check the surrounding buildings to make sure the evacuation order he'd called for had been carried out. Jane gave Darcy and Ian their instructions.

"Hammer these in all around the site," she said, opening the back hatch of her vehicle. "Deep enough they won't be easily knocked over. Once they're in, Erik and I will activate them from the tower."

They took off toward the building, leaving the other two behind. Ian was looking at Erik's creations with a dubious expression.

"Hey, focus," Darcy told him sharply. "We've gotta get these things in the ground so Jane can do her sciency stuff and save the world."

Ian picked up one of the rods. "Darcy, they're held together with tape."

"Do you even know what these things do?"

"No."

After a beat, Darcy admitted, "Neither do I."

The two of them barely got started when a commotion arose from near the waterfront. A huge splash erupted from the surface of the water, followed by a low rumble. The disturbed water got closer and just before it reached land, there was a deafening boom, louder than any thunder Darcy had ever heard. The air above the water rippled like a heat shimmer and in between one blink and the next, a ship appeared.

It moved toward them, breaking through the river's bank and carving a deep gouge in the earth. The impact sent shock waves reverberating through the ground, breaking windows and cracking the stonework of the buildings. Finally, it came to a stop, a stark black monolith towering over everything.

"Holy sh-"

Darcy was cut off by Ian grabbing her hand and yanking her arm as he took off running away from the ship. Her heart beat so hard she could feel it in the back of her throat and the sensible part of her brain was shouting at her to just keep running, to find somewhere to hide and let Muscles and the Extremely Tall Trio handle things. She ignored it, not because of a lack of sense, but because she knew there were still three rods to plant before Jane and Erik's plan could work. They were counting on her and Ian, and so was the rest of the planet.

Thor watched from one of the rooftops as Darcy and Ian ducked behind one of the buildings. Turning his eyes back to the ship, he saw a red light appear near the top that descended down to ground level where it opened to reveal a transport pod. The pod opened, and from it spilled dozens of dark elf warriors, followed by the Kursed, and at last, Malekith.

Thor let Mjolnir's handle slide through his grip until he felt the leather strap at the end. He spun the great hammer and took to the air, a rumble of thunder accompanying his takeoff. He landed hard, leaving a spiderweb of cracks in the brick path below his feet.

Malekith raised his chin as their gazes met, a clear challenge written in his eyes. The Aether both deepened his voice and gave it an unnatural echo, as if it came from several places all at once.

"You needn't have come so far, Asgardian. Death would have come for you soon enough."

"Not by your hand," Thor returned.

"Your universe was never meant to be. You, your world and your family will be extinguished.

Before Thor could raise his own weapon, Malekith lashed out with the Aether, throwing him high in the air and dropping him hard on his back. He lifted his head and gave the signal for the others to engage but he only just got back to his feet before there came an almighty roar and another blow that sent him flying even farther away from the ship. He crashed through several pillars of the nearest building before one held and brought an abrupt end to his flight. In the now distant fray, he could see his friends battling the dark elves while Malekith stood back, only deigning to strike when it seemed the Asgardians might overwhelm his own men.

Thor had every intention of joining them but between himself and the battle, stood the Kursed, the source of the second blow. The creature's eyes glowed a fiery orange, a sure sign the dark power had almost consumed him. Its death was not far off but until then, it would only grow more powerful. There was no hope of defeating Malekith if he had both the Aether and the Kursed to defend him.

Thor pushed himself to his feet just as the Kursed reached him. He swung his hammer with all his strength but the beast barely flinched at the blow. Arm cocked, he tried again, but this time the Kursed caught Mjolnir's head before it landed. It threw its other fist into the underside of Thor's jaw, snapping his head back with enough force to make the bones of his neck grind. The blow threw him back into the open, with grass, dirt and stone flying up into the air as he landed.

Dazed, he rolled from his back onto his hands and knees. In his mouth he tasted the bitter tang of blood and he felt a stirring of fear. He already knew the Kursed possessed immense strength but if just a few blows could do this, a strike in the might place might actually kill him.

He hadn't yet lifted his head when a shadow fell over him. A burning hand wrapped around his throat and dragged him out of the crater made by his landing. With all the effort of a child tossing a plaything, the Kursed threw him toward another set of pillars. By the time he came to a stop, his head swam so viciously that he lost all track of how many pillars he broke. Something like Asgard's klaxon rang loud in his ears and no matter how much he blinked, something kept obscuring his vision.

He had to get up, he knew that much. He had to fight back somehow or the beast would surely finish him. Mjolnir lay on its head beside him, as if it was waiting for him to take it up but when he made to reach for it, his arm wouldn't obey. He tried again but only managed the barest movement. It was as if his whole body was submerged in impossibly thick mire and no matter what he did, he couldn't pull himself out of it.

A dark shape drew close to him. Dark, with glowing orange eyes. And all Thor could do was watch.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It probably feels somewhat cliche to keep reading us writers apologize for updates taking so long but I want to say it anyway. I wanted to have this chapter ready sooner but I was laid up with an awful head cold that lingered on for almost two weeks. Just thinking about writing was exhausting. But I'm all better, so we should be back on track. Better yet, we're getting into the home stretch!

Volstagg swung his axe in a wide arc, catching an elf in the midsection. The miscreant went down but two more took his place to continue the assault. He couldn't understand where they kept coming from. The dark elves were said to have perished entirely five millennia ago, yet now it seemed not just Malekith but a whole battalion of his warriors survived. It was bad enough the Asgardians were so vastly outnumbered, but they were also missing one of their own.

"Where is he?" he shouted, hearing the clang of Fandral's rapier behind him.

"The beast sent him off in that direction."

Volstagg risked a glance to see where his companion was pointing but there was no sign of either Thor or the monster that went after him. A bolt of energy from a dark elf weapon shot past his face, close enough to singe his beard. The acrid smell of burnt hair wafted into his nostrils, a forceful reminder not to allow himself to be distracted again.

"We need his help," he said, deflecting a second bolt off the edge of his axe.

"What if he needs ours?" Sif replied before smashing her shield into the masked face of an elf and driving her glaive through its chest.

"Thor needing help?" Fandral quipped, ducking just in time to avoid the swath of a dark elf blade through the space where his head had just been. "Our Thor?"

Despite the light-hearted words, Volstagg knew his friend worried. They all did. Thor's strength may be unparalleled but he was no more invincible than the rest of them. And they all knew tales of the Kursed, of their power and viciousness. That Thor had not yet returned to their sides was proof of the challenge posed by even one of the famed monsters.

Volstagg rammed the handle of his axe into the belly of another elf. The elf doubled over, putting him in perfect position for Volstagg to bring his blade down onto its neck. "Even if he does, we cannot leave this fight."

Sif blocked another sword blow with her shield but the force of it knocked her back a few paces. She grunted against the strain and returned with a lethal strike of her own. "Then we best win it."

~~~|~~~

Loki paced in his chamber, eaten up with restlessness. The Convergence was close, he could feel it. His very skin seemed to crawl with its energy as though thousands of tiny insects had burrowed beneath it and were scurrying around under the surface.

A painful twinge in his chest made his gait falter for a moment. He halted and pressed his hand over the scar, hissing a curse through clenched teeth. Damn that foul elf for doing this to him. Damn his own carelessness for not minding his surroundings. If not for that, he would not be here now. He would be where he should be, on Midgard fighting shoulder to shoulder with his brother instead of hiding away in his rooms.

For good measure, he also cursed Thor for making him vow to stay behind. At the very least, he should have insisted on making the journey to Midgard, even if Thor refused to let him fight once there. That way, he could have been of some use, however limited. After all, strategizing and coordinating their efforts was not so strenuous it would jeopardize his recovery. At most, it would tire him out. Hardly a major concern. He could even have helped direct the battle while sitting down if he had to. But such a thing hadn't even occurred to him until long after Thor left and now here he was, alive and well, and utterly useless. Norns, what had he been thinking?

Something like thunder rumbled outside and Loki went to his terrace. Gazing upward, he saw a hole opening in the sky. Through it could be seen hints of a green landscape. Vanaheim. The appearance of the portal meant the peak was mere minutes away. Soon other windows would appear in the sky and if his friends were unsuccessful, darkness would pour through them one after the other until all was consumed.

Loki turned and crossed the room to a set of shelves near his desk. They held all manner of artifacts, tools, and compounds he used in his study of seiðr. He retrieved a round silver basin inscribed with ancient runes and set it down. He filled it half-full with water and spoke the words of a scrying rite before the surface of the water calmed. Once it was completely still, the water turned opaque and his own reflection vanished, replaced by a vision of what has happening on Midgard. He watched Malekith's ship set down on a river bank, leaving a wide trench of ruined earth behind it. Malekith and his forces emerged. A moment later, Thor landed in front of him and Loki winced. Why did his brother always insist on charging their enemies head-on?

His dismay only worsened as Malekith used the Aether to drive Thor back. Sif, Fandral and Volstagg emerged to join the fray. At least Thor had enough tactical foresight to conceal their presence until the last possible moment.

The Kursed one stalked toward his brother and struck him with a brutal blow. Thor tumbled through the air like a doll, landing hard. Loki's breath froze in his lungs and his heart skipped beat after beat until his brother rose. _Damn him_ , he thought again. Thor wanted him to stay behind for fear of losing him. Whether he realized it or not, by doing so he only ensured Loki would be the one to feel that terror instead. Watching the Kursed descend on his brother again, Loki felt the same aching helplessness of watching the attack on his mother. His brother was outmatched, and not even Mjolnir was enough to bolster his chances. If he should fall...

No, he wouldn't let it happen. He would make sure it didn't. But he couldn't do that from here.

Making up his mind to act, Loki strode toward his chamber door, but he paused before he reached it. While he was almost at his full strength, world-walking would sap too much of his power for him to be of any use once he reached Midgard. The weak spots between realms caused by the Convergence were too unpredictable for him to rely on. That left the bifrost as his only option, but Heimdall would surely never open it for him at such a perilous time and there was no time to convince the All-Father to overrule him. To use the bifrost, Loki needed a way around the gatekeeper. If only he could keep him out of the way, somehow.

An idea occurred to him and before it was even fully formed in his mind, Loki had teleported to the weapons vault. He leaped down the steps as fast as he dared and ran across the gangway to the pedestal at the far end. Upon reaching the Casket of Ancient Winters, he took it into his hands. As his fingers closed around its handles, he was struck by the vivid memory of the first time he held it. He felt the surge of anguish that consumed him the day he tried to end his life. It staggered him but only briefly, for along with it came the memory of his father's arms enfolding him, holding him close, and making him believe that his true heritage had no bearing on his family's love for him.

Loki twisted his hands and sent the Casket into his interdimensional pocket. He wondered if the gatekeeper would ever forgive him for what he was about to do, if any of them would. He was well, at least well enough that he was not breaking his vow to Thor. But what of his parents? It was only a short while ago he nearly died rushing off to save Asgard, and he despite what he told them, he was about to do it again. Not for the same reasons, but would that matter when all was said and done?

Loki did his best to banish those thoughts. His family loved him, he knew they did. They may not love what he was going to do, but they would love _him_. He just needed to trust in that love, not the doubts of his own foolish heart. He turned around to go back the way he came and froze when he saw who was at the other end of the room.

"What are you doing with that?" his father demanded.

~~~|~~~

From a perch high up in the corner of one of the campus buildings, Jane watched as Darcy and Ian tried to avoid the dark elves long enough to plant the last of the gravometric rods. In the clouds above them another portal appeared. She felt a fleeting sense of regret that she wouldn't get the chance to observe the phenomenon as an ordinary scientist. The information gleaned from the Convergence could be invaluable to her own research, but she'd never get to find out. Maybe the Asgardians could wait another five thousand yeas for the next one, but she couldn't. Not that saving the universe instead wasn't a good trade-off. It was only that her inner scientist was hard to ignore.

"We're almost at the peak," Erik said, interrupting her thoughts. "Seven minutes."

"Then we'll just have to keep Malekith busy for eight," she replied without looking at him. Her eyes were busy going back and forth from her scanner's display to her cell phone resting on the ledge beside her as she waited to hear confirmation from Darcy.

"Are you sure this is going to work? These devices were meant to detect the anomalies, not cause them."

Jane nodded at him. The gravitational field emitted by the spikes would interact with the weak spots between the realms. Anyone close enough to be caught in the field would find themselves yanked through to another world. With her scanner, Jane could dial the field up or down, growing or shrinking it to suit her needs. At least, that was what was supposed to happen. She'd gone over the data and done the math. It should work, in theory. But there were always unforeseen variables and the Convergence wasn't exactly predictable.

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and looked across the grounds, mentally urging Darcy and Ian to finish. As if hearing her, Darcy turned her direction and gave an emphatic thumbs up. She and Ian ran for cover while Jane focused the scanner on one of the rods in the middle of the melee below. The air around it bent like a heat shimmer before the rod sent out a pulse through the air like a ripple on a pond. Three dark elves who were about to gang up on Fandral were caught in the wave and disappeared.

"It worked," she said, the words heavy with relief.

" _That's awesome_ ," came Darcy's tinny voice over Jane's cell phone speaker. " _Ooh, get the guy with the sword!_ "

One of Malekith's soldiers had seen the two interns hide and was heading their way. Jane refocused the controls and sent out another wave but it went the wrong direction and disappeared Darcy and Ian instead.

"Oops," Jane muttered.

She triggered the rod again and was relieved to see their energy signatures pop up on her display around the corner from the spot where they vanished.

" _What the hell just happened?_ " Darcy shouted over the phone.

Before Jane could explain, she heard a crash on the other end of the phone, followed by a scream.

" _Move!_ " Darcy yelled.

There was another crash and some scuffling over the speakers, followed by silence. Hoping what she heard was just Darcy dropping the phone, Jane leaned out to try and spot them, just catching a glimpse of her and Ian running alongside the road while being chased by a pair of elves.

"Jane," Erik said, drawing her attention back to the main event.

Malekith seemed to have grown tired of waiting for his people to beat the Asgardians and was using the Aether to attack them. He sent missiles of red energy at Sif, who barely dodged them with a low roll. Another blast slammed into Fandral from behind and sent him into a face plant. He got up with his sword still in hand, but he staggered a bit on unsteady feet, dazed from the impact. Volstagg abandoned the elves in front of him in favour of charging at Malekith at a speed Jane would never have expected from him. He swung his axe over his head, unleashing a lion-like roar. Miracle of miracles, he managed to connect before Malekith blocked him. Malekith flew backwards and vanished through a portal. Volstagg kept charging as if he knew where the elf would reappear. He turned out to be right but Malekith was ready this time. Using the Aether's strength, he punched Volstagg in the center of his chest and sent him flying the same way he had Thor.

 _Thor!_  Jane suddenly thought. She hadn't seen him since that Kurse thing went after him. Their whole plane was counting on him and his hammer but he was nowhere in sight. Her pulse quickened into an anxious thudding in her chest. Thor wouldn't willingly leave his friends to fight alone. Something was keeping him away, the same something that had nearly killed Frigga. If the attack on Asgard proved anything, it was that for all their strength, the Aesir were not invulnerable. Not even Thor.

She scanned across the campus grounds, weighing their chance of success. Sure, she could improve their odds by getting rid of as many elves as she could but that would be meaningless if they couldn't also take out Malekith. Thor was their best shot at that. Without him, they may have already lost.

"Come on, Thor," she pleaded under her breath. But wherever he was, he didn't seem to hear.

~~~|~~~

Loki began crossing the floor of the vault. "They need my help, Father."

At the top of the stairs, Gungnir in hand, Odin sighed. "Loki-"

"I heard what you and Mother said to me," he interrupted, coming to a stop at the bottom step. "I heard it, and I swear this is not another sacrifice play. But the mortals are outmatched and so is Thor. I'm going to help them."

"Loki-"

"It's not recklessness," he insisted. "I know I am not fully fit to fight but the Casket will make up for it. I can do this, Father."

"I know, Loki."

The remark caught Loki flat-footed and his remaining arguments dissolved in his mind, emerging from his mouth in a brief, wordless sound. Odin began descending the stairs. 

"Thus the Silvertongue is rendered speechless. I never thought I'd live to see it. Tell me, how did you plan to persuade Heimdall to allow you passage?" He glanced past Loki to the empty pedestal that usually held the Casket. "Or was persuasion even part of the plan?"

Loki held his gaze but said nothing, knowing that using the Casket on Heimdall was the least defensible part of his plan. From his knowing tone and pointed look, the All-Father knew it too.

"The Casket won't be enough," his father said. He held up his hand when Loki began to protest. "Perhaps I should have said the Casket _alone_  won't be enough."

Loki looked around the vault, in part just to hide his relief that Odin wasn't there to stop him from going to Midgard. There were other weapons but he couldn't see how any of them would be a help in this particular fight. "I don't know what else to take."

The All-Father smiled. "I do."

~~~|~~~

It didn't matter how many times he blinked, Thor's vision refused to clear. The indistinct but unmistakable shape of the Kursed grew closer. Thor made one more attempt to reach out for Mjolnir but his sluggish arm was too slow. The beast kicked it out of reach and leaned over him with a satisfied growl.

Blow after brutal blow hammered down on Thor's face and body. His armor saved his torso from the worst of it but he had no such protection for his head. With each strike his vision filled with a flash of white. It wasn't long before the flashes were all he saw.

Then there was another flash, brighter than the rest. Through his muddled thoughts, Thor realized that was strange. He saw a flash but felt no blow. Was he truly so far gone that he no longer felt the pain of his certain demise?

Above him, the Kursed roared. Thor closed his eyes, ready for the final blow. It didn't come. Instead, he heard a voice.

"Go to Hel, monster."

Through the ringing in his ears from the blows to his head, he could just make out the crack of weapons fire. A very specific kind of weapons fire, one that he recognized, but could not quite place.

The Kursed roared again after the blast but now Thor thought he could hear pain in the sound. Another blast followed, and another, and another, until Thor lost track of how many there were. The monster struggled against the onslaught but didn't prevail. It fell to its knees, smoke rising from its charred and ruined body. With one final blast, it was dead.

Footsteps approached and a greenish form took shape in front of Thor. At first, it passed him and came to stop beside the corpse of the Kursed. The same voice he heard earlier spat a vicious oath over the body, each word dripping with acid. Thor's vision was still not clear as the green shape turned toward him but he could see enough to leave him stunned. At first, he thought it was a vision, a dream. Something unreal. Not because of who he saw, but what the person had with him.

"Well, brother," Loki said, twirling Gungnir—the _All-Father's_ Gungnir—in his hands before slamming the butt of the spear into the ground. "Always getting into trouble without me, aren't you?"


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. I cannot believe it's been so long since I posted the last chapter. I should have seen it coming but summer busyness kind of snuck up on me and a few weeks grew into three months when I wasn't looking.

Thor blinked slowly but the picture before him didn't make any more sense. His brother stood not ten feet away with their father's treasured weapon in his hands.

"Where did you get that?" he asked as Loki came over to him.

"Get what?" Loki replied, kneeling down beside him.

Thor pointed at the spear.

"Father gave it to me."

"Is... is he..."

Loki's brows knitted with confusion for a moment before relaxing again as he rolled his eyes. "He's fine, you fool. He insisted I bring it. He seemed to think you were doomed without it. And without me."

Thor wanted to laugh but between his exhaustion and pain, all he could manage was a sigh. If Loki was back to teasing, that surely meant things were well back home.

Loki ran a finger along a gash on Thor's forehead and his hand came away bloody. "This won't do. Where is your helm?"

"Where is yours?"

Loki answered with another eye roll. His brother pressed his fingers on either side of the gash and closed his eyes. A gentle warmth spread through the wound and he felt his flesh knit back together, his own healing sped along by his brother's skill. The pain subsided and along with it went the dizziness, helping his thoughts to clear. It was then he remembered why Loki so seldom performed such workings.

"What are you doing?" he snapped, pushing his brother's hand away. "Don't waste your strength like that!"

"A simple word of gratitude would have sufficed," Loki retorted, an angry clench in his jaw.

Thor raised himself to sitting. "I will survive a mere flesh wound. Can you say the same if you exhaust yourself before you even enter the battle?"

"Healing magicks may be taxing but repairing a simple cut so that you may see without blood pouring into your eyes will hardly leave me crippled, brother dear. But by all means, if you wish me to put it back..." Loki rose, yanked Gungnir from the ground and held it as if he meant to strike Thor in the face with it.

"Peace, brother," Thor said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I only worry that you are still healing." 

Loki lowered the spear. "And I worry what would have become of you had I not arrived when I did. Did you think at all before taking on that monster alone?"

Thor resisted a powerful temptation to point out Loki had done almost the same thing on the day before. What he could not resist was smiling. His brother looked and sounded exactly like their mother when she lectured them.

"What, what is that look?" Loki demanded, which Thor dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"It is no matter. I am just glad you came when you did." He let Loki pull him to his feet, not missing the way his brother's eyes searched his own, still scanning for signs of injury.

"I couldn't very well let you go back on your promise to me, could I?" Loki said, so casually it could only be a front to mask his concern.

Thor played along with an equally casual, "Of course not."

He rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck, noting that not only was his dizziness was gone, but so was most of the pain and tiredness from the Kursed's beating. His brother must not have been fully truthful when he said all he did was close the gash on his head. Thor didn't know whether to shake his head or take Loki by the shoulders and shake him until he saw sense. He knew that healing magic was more than just 'taxing', like his brother said. For one who hadn't extensively trained in the healing arts, anything more than a simple spell could leave the healer severely drained, and Loki's training was basic at best. That he would risk depleting his energy right before joining a battle made Thor wonder if his brother really was as clever as everyone thought. Though Loki claimed to understand his life was not worth less than anyone else's, Thor still wasn't sure he believed it, especially not when Loki's actions spoke otherwise. He still had vivid memories of how lost and desolate his brother was after learning his true heritage. He could recall every detail of their father explaining what Loki had tried to make the Destroyer do. It never failed to send awful chills down his spine. Loki had never done anything quite so desperate again, not until they almost lost their mother. But there had been other occasions, other moments like this where Thor wondered if his brother still had that inclination and it was only manifesting in less obvious ways. 

Oblivious to his concern, Loki spun Gungnir in his hands and pointed it toward where the battle still raged. "Shall we?"

Instead of answering, Thor held his hand out and called Mjolnir to him, revelling at the feel of the hammer's power in his grip and choosing, for the moment, not to comment on Loki's self-destructive tendencies. The two of them ran back to the center of the courtyard and surveyed the scene.

"There isn't much time," Loki said, casting his eyes upward.

Thor looked toward the heavens and saw what he meant. Through holes in the sky, he glimpsed Vanaheim, Jötunheim and Svartalfheim. He lowered his eyes to the battle. His friends held their own against the elves but with Malekith wielding the Aether, it was anything but a fair fight.

"We need to get to Malekith," Thor said, raising his voice over the noise. "If we eliminate his guards, he cannot stand against all of us."

He was about to charge into the fray but Loki caught his arm. "Patience, brother."

Planting his spear in the ground once again, Loki waved his hands before him, creating a blue glow that resolved itself into the Casket of Ancient Winters. An icy blast blew toward Malekith, forming a wall between him and the rest. With a few more targeted blasts, Loki immobilized most of the remaining elves, leaving them easy targets for the Asgardians to pick off. That done, Loki returned the Casket's fury to Malekith. They all watched the wall of ice grow and thicken around their enemy, completely encasing him.

All except for Thor. Something else held his attention.

The Casket had triggered Loki's transformation. He'd only shown Thor glimpses of it before but this was so much more. From the curved lineal markings on his forehead and his ruby red eyes, to his long blue fingers with black nails, Loki was fully in Jötun form.

"Hurry, Thor," Loki grunted. "I can't hold him off for long."

The order jolted Thor from his thoughts. In his brother's hands, the Casket pulsed with light with each wave of energy it expelled. The artifact's supply of power was not infinite and Loki was taxing it to the limit keeping Malekith contained.

Tearing his eyes away from Loki's transformed face, Thor did as he was told. He took off at great speed, barely pausing to strike down two elves who managed to free themselves from the ice. As he closed in on another, he could hear a great crash come from behind the Casket's barrier. There was another, and another. A quick look at the wall of ice revealed cracks forming faster than his brother could seal them up. Time was running out.

Raising Mjolnir above his head, Thor called on the power of the storm. Overhead, clouds formed and grew dark as they swirled and rumbled. The smell of ozone filled the air and Thor smiled. He summoned the lightning, channelling the strike into his hammer and sending it onward. Without fail, it found its targets, branching off in all directions and eliminating the last wave of Malekith's forces.

It was not a moment too soon.

A great explosion, far louder than the thunder Thor created, sent him and his friends tumbling to their knees. A shower of snow and ice crystals rained down on them. Nothing remained of Loki's barrier but shattered pieces. Worried, Thor turned to look for his brother. Loki was down on one knee as well, with one hand clinging to Gungnir where it was planted in the ground, the only thing that looked to be keeping him upright. His other hand was pressed to his chest that was heaving with harsh breaths as though he'd run all the way to Midgard from Asgard. At his side lay the Casket, its brilliant glow dull and muted, almost invisible.

"Brother," Thor called out.

"I'm fine," Loki gasped, his face pale and drawn.

It wasn't the most convincing lie his brother ever told, but Thor didn't have the chance to question him because there came the sound of laughter from behind him.

"I have waited five thousand years for this, Asgardian," Malekith said, his eerie voice echoing through the courtyard. "I will not be denied."

Out of nowhere, a fierce wind whipped through the grounds, so strong it even picked up debris from the battle and hurled it through the air, forcing Thor and his comrades to retreat to a safer distance. Malekith stood at the center of the cyclone, smiling as the Aether's energy grew out around him, obscuring him from sight. The red cyclone spun ever higher with each passing moment as it reached for the portals to the other realms.

"We must stop him," Sif shouted over the noise of the unnatural storm.

"The Convergence is amplifying the Aether's power," Loki yelled back. "It will repel every weapon we have."

Thor shifted Mjolnir in his grasp. "There must be something."

His brother's eyes were haunted as they lifted up to the sky. "No. We're too late."

The tendrils of Aether had reached the portals, spreading into each realm. Jane and Erik came running over but he fell behind as he slowed and looked up.

"It's too late," he said, echoing Loki. "The Convergence is at its peak."

"What about those?" Thor asked, pointing to the closest of Selvig's devices sticking out of the ground.

Erik shook his head. "The signal they emit isn't strong enough to penetrate the Aether's energy. It's too much interference."

"Then we'll just have to get closer." Thor yanked two of the devices out of the ground and started toward Malekith.

Jane grabbed his arm. "Thor, even if you could get close enough, it won't work. We still need to trigger the rods with this." She held up the control device. "There's no way the signal will get through all of that, not unless we shut down the Aether."

"I'll find a way." He started toward Malekith again but Loki stopped him.

"Thor, don't-"

"If you have any clever ideas, brother, now would be the time" Thor cut him off.

A brief flicker of surprise flashed in Loki's eyes at the abrupt response but Thor felt little guilt over it. While he wasn't eager to sacrifice himself to stop Malekith, he knew that might be the only way and he was willing to do it. If Loki had thought of another way, Thor would welcome it but if all he meant to do was persuade him to hold off, then Thor didn't want to hear it. It would only make it harder to do what was necessary.

Loki's surprise faded quickly, though he did give Thor a look that suggested his brother might find a way to make him pay for such incivility later. He looked beyond Thor to the swirling mass of Aether, its poisonous red tentacles reaching ever deeper into the neighbouring realms, then down at the rod on Thor's hand. After a moment, one corner of his mouth turned up.

"Actually, I believe I do."

~~~|~~~

At the center of the storm, Malekith stood with arms outstretched, reaching up to the blackened sky. The Aether's darkness had reached another realm and its power only grew. Soon, that darkness would blanket the entire universe and five thousand years of waiting would come to an end. The sacrifice of his home and of his people would not be for nothing. 

There was a flickering of something at the edge of his awareness but he was so enraptured by the glorious darkness, he recognized what he'd sensed too late. From the corner of his eye, he saw a bright flash. A sound like the crackling of electricity reached his ears the same time that a searing pain lanced through his right arm, so intense even the Aether could not quell it. Instinctively, he clutched at his arm with his left hand only find himself grasping the air. His arm had been blasted away. Blood poured from what was left of his shoulder where it was whipped into the air by the strong winds.

"That was for my mother," someone called out over the swirling wind kicked up by the Aether.

The dark-haired Odinson materialized from his right, a golden spear in his hands. Malekith felt his lip curl into a sneer as his rage began to boil. So that's what it was, that flicker of seiðr he noticed before losing his arm. The whelp who had thought to steal the Aether from him was back to try again, it seemed. And he'd brought along his father's weapon.

"And so is this."

The boy fired a second shot from his spear but that time, Malekith was ready. With the Aether's help, he deflected the blast harmlessly away with his remaining arm. "You are every bit the fool your whore mother was," he spat.

Instead of the anger he expected to see, the Odinson smiled. "She lives, Malekith. Unlike your precious Kursed."

 _That cannot be_ , he thought. _She couldn't have survived._ "You lie."

"Dark elf enchantments are no match for Aesir healers," the impudent boy bragged, his smile widening. "As for your famously unstoppable beast, him I killed myself."

A bellow of rage exploded from Malekith's mouth before he could restrain it. Even after so long a time he could not escape Bor's meddling. It was as if the Aesir king was reaching out from the halls of Valhalla to torment him through his descendants. The thought filled him with such fury it nearly blinded him. But he could not lose control now, not when he was so close to victory.

Getting himself under control, he matched the boy's insolent grin with one of his own. "You've only delayed the inevitable. Darkness returns. Your universe is ending. Did you truly think you could stop that with so feeble a weapon?"

Odin's whelp glanced down at his spear and to Malekith's confusion, he shrugged. "No," he said, looking back up. "I only wanted to make sure you were watching me and not him."

The point of a stake erupted through the center of Malekith's chest. The pain from his lost arm was a mere irritation compared with this new agony. He tried to turn around to see the other attacker but the boy kept firing at him with that damned spear. It took every bit of strength he had to maintain control of the Aether and fend off the spear blasts while contending with the immense distraction of the stake impaled in his own chest. Then the Odinson suddenly stopped firing. Half a moment later, a force slammed into him from the other direction, so strong it was as if it came from one of the Kursed. It threw him through the air until he collided with his own ship.

Dazed from the impact, Malekith's focus shattered and the Aether's energy dissipated. A high-pitched warbling came from the spike in his body. Everything around him began to bend and warp. He shouted in impotent rage as his body was pulled away from Midgard and through the spaces between worlds. In the cruellest of ironies, it landed him on the the dead remains of what had once been his home.

~~~|~~~

Jane's breath caught in her throat the sound of an explosion came from inside the Aether. Her jaw dropped open as she saw Thor and Loki flung from clear of the cyclone. Even before their bodies hit the ground, the swirling Aether disappeared.

 _They did it. They actually did it._ She quickly looked down at her scanner and saw the gravometric rod Thor had taken with him pop up on the display again. The second it did, she triggered it. At the far end of the college grounds, Malekith disappeared in an anti-climactic blur.

There were celebratory shouts from behind her but Jane didn't join them. She was more worried about Thor. Both he and his brother had been thrown clear but while Loki was already stirring, Thor was not.

~~~|~~~

Loki's head spun wildly and he groaned. He should have known something like that would happen. With two powerful artifacts colliding that way, of course the result would be violent. He had a feeling his ears would ring for days.

With difficulty, he rolled over on to his stomach and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. He looked up and saw both the Aether and Malekith were gone. He let his head hang down and heaved a relieved sigh. It was over. The nightmare that haunted him for a year was finally at an end.

Hearing Jane cry his brother's name made Loki raise his head once more. Across the great courtyard, his brother lay face down and motionless on the ground in the shadow of Malekith's dead ship.

_No... no, he can't be..._

Just before he was overcome by panic, Loki saw the slight rise and fall of Thor's back. No, his brother wasn't dead. Jane ran to him, perhaps not noticing the same signs of life. Right as she reached him, the ground started to rumble.

Shaken and damaged by the collision between Mjolnir and Malekith's Aether-infused body, the base of their enemy's ship collapsed under its own weight. As more and more pieces crumbled away from it, the ship began to tilt.

Loki watched Jane roll his brother onto his back and try to wake him, to no avail. When that didn't work, she tried to drag him to safety but her mortal strength was no match for Thor's bulk. Loki struggled to up and help her but even as he did, he wouldn't make it on foot.

Summoning every last bit of strength he had, Loki teleported to Jane's side. He threw an arm around her and knelt down, making her do the same so they occupied a smaller area of space.

"Whatever you do," he said into her ear, "stay still."

Frighteningly aware of just how weak he felt, Loki watched the ship fall toward them. He didn't have enough strength left to teleport all three of them. All he could to was shield them with seiðr but that too required energy and focus to work, and he had precious little of either to spend. If he put up the shield too soon, it might collapse before they were out of danger. He had to wait until the last possible moment...

_Now!_

Loki raised the shield but the glowing barrier lasted only a moment before it collapsed. His heart stopped, frozen in his chest by the horror that he'd overestimated his own reserve of strength and they were going to die because of it.

Just as it was about to crush them, a strong gust of air swept over the courtyard. In the blink of an eye, the falling ship vanished. Loki gasped as his heart started up again, pounding so hard he thought it might actually burst from his chest. He looked around and spied Erik running over to them.

"Is everybody okay?"

Jane raised her head. "How..."

Selvig held up the same instrument Jane had been using to manipulate the portals. She had dropped it in her haste to reach Thor. Erik's broad grin moved Loki to do the same in spite of the terror that hadn't quite receded from his body. Fandral, Sif, and Volstagg were right on Erik's heels. While the other two saw to Thor, Volstagg held an arm out to Loki.

"Are you all right, lad?"

"I am," Loki replied, though Volstagg did have to pull him to his feet.

He friend said nothing as he threw one arm across Loki's shoulders, a gesture that conveyed affection and had the added benefit of disguising the fact that he needed help to stay standing. A few feet away, his brother was also awake and sitting up. Jane fussed over him for a moment before she shot to her feet, eyes flitting about the courtyard.

"Oh my god. Darcy. Where's Darcy? Has anyone seen her?"

Erik looked at the screen on Jane's device. "Uh, I've got them. Just one moment..."

He turned the dials and pressed a button. Two figures materialized a short distance away. Locked in a passionate embrace, it was a moment before either one noticed something had changed. Darcy saw it first, hastily dropping her hands to her sides, which was unfortunate for Ian. Leaning back the way he was, without her holding onto him there was nothing to stop him falling to the ground.

"So, uh, did we win?" Darcy asked, smoothing her clothing with her hands while the young man scrambled to his feet.

Thor and Fandral burst out laughing.

"When did this happen?" Jane asked, shocked.

"Um, about five minutes ago."

"What?"

"These dark elves were coming at me and I kind of froze and Ian just picked up a car and dropped it on them."

"You picked up a car?" Thor asked with a dubious look at Ian's somewhat skinny frame.

Ian shrugged. With a bashful duck of his head, he said, "It was a Mini."

"The gravitational anomalies," Jane said, her relieved tone a sign that the world again made sense to her. "The Convergence-"

"Oh, who cares," Darcy interrupted. "He saved my life and it was totally awesome."

She threw her arms around Ian's neck and pressed a kiss to his lips, which he obligingly returned. Loki looked away to give them a semblance of privacy, though he might have been the only one to do so. His gaze wandered to the devastation left by Malekith's attack. None of the buildings were destroyed but cracked walls, broken windows, and even holes punctuated the facades. The courtyard itself was littered with debris and the corpses of the fallen. The restoration work would take a long time by mortal standards, though compared with what would have happened if Malekith succeeded, it was a trifle.

"Who will sort all this out, I wonder," Fandral said, gesturing at the surrounding carnage, his thoughts obviously along similar lines to Loki.

The mortals exchanged a look and Darcy was the first to speak. "I vote SHIELD.

"They must have people for this sort of thing, right?" Jane asked accompanying the question with a half-shrug.

Erik scoffed. "Probably a whole department for cleaning up these messes."

"But this is our mess," Ian said. "Isn't it?"

"Dude, we just saved the world," Darcy replied.

"Actually, the universe," Loki corrected her.

"Exactly. We saved the universe, so we get a pass on the cleanup."

Fandral grinned at her. "I knew I liked you."

Thor let loose another hearty laugh, then got to his feet with a grunt. Once there, he turned to Loki with a questioning gaze. Loki nodded in response, indicating he was well. He was thoroughly exhausted, his chest hurt, and the last teleport left him so dizzy he could hardly see straight. All that was minor, though. He was alive and mostly well. They all were.

That was, by any definition, a victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I wrote that line about there being a whole department to clean up their messes long ago and now _Homecoming_ made it canon, which kind of makes me laugh.)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used to wonder what happened to writers on here who would get within a chapter or two of finishing a fic only to disappear and now I'm one of them... *nervous laugh*...uh, anyway, apologies for this taking so long (again). Revising this chapter from my initial draft was like getting blood from a stone and for a long time, I didn't know why. For some reason, I just hated everything I came up with. Then the Captain Obvious portion of my brain finally kicked in and said, "Instead of banging your head against the wall trying to make what you have work, why don't you try something else?" So I tossed most of my first draft and lo and behold, suddenly I could write! I'd honestly forgotten what it felt like to have ideas flowing and actually like them.

There was no grand banquet in Asgard when her princes returned victorious. No celebratory feast with revelling lasting into the daylight hours. The devastation to Asgard and grief stemming from it were still too recent for anyone to be in a mood for something so jubilant.

So the usual feast became a quiet—by Asgardian standards—dinner in the royal family's private dining hall, one of the few rooms deep enough in the palace to not be unaffected by the ransacking dark elves. The only ones in attendance were the All-Father's family and the friends who had helped them in Malekith's final defeat. Despite his usual appetite for raucous merrymaking, Thor wasn't disappointed with the smaller affair. Perhaps it was a sign of maturity, but after everything they'd gone through, it was enough for him that he could simply enjoy the company of family and friends. He wondered though, if it was enough for his brother.

In such a small gathering, it was easy to keep an eye on Loki. His brother put on a masterful performance, seeming to match the happy mood of the others. When the attention would pass from him to another, however, Thor saw him recede into his thoughts.

He also saw when Loki waited until all the others were fully engrossed in conversation and excused himself with no fanfare. Thor waited a few moments and followed him. He expected his brother to have fled all the way to his room but was surprised to find him just outside the dining hall leaning against the wall, his head tilted back and his eyes closed.

"Before you ask, brother," Loki said without opening his eyes. "I'm fine.

"Are you sure?" Thor asked, giving Loki's shoulder a squeeze. Loki's eyes opened to slits.

"Do you think I'm lying?"

"It's been known to happen. You did do more than this even though you said you didn't," Thor said, his hand leaving Loki's shoulder to point to his forehead where Loki healed a deep cut left by the Kursed.

"And you've come to chastise me, have you?" Loki asked tiredly, closing his eyes again.

Thor shook his head. "Only to thank you." It was rather gratifying to see the hint of surprise in Loki's eyes when he opened them again.

"Oh?"

"You saved me from the Kursed and got me ready to fight again. And it was your plan to take down Malekith. You were at my side when I needed you most, and I'm grateful."

"Yes, well..." Loki paused to clear his throat. "Remember that the next time you go off gallivanting with your mortal friends."

"They are your friends too, brother," Thor reminded him, the words coming out with more sharpness than he intended. 

"A little more yours than mine."

"Loki, after everything we've done together, how can you still-"

"A jest, brother," Loki interrupted. "Only a jest. You are far too easy to rile."

He sounded earnest but it was still hard for Thor to believe him after so many months of Loki's resentment over the time he spent away from Asgard with the Midgardians. His brother was not one to change his feelings so easily.

Loki seemed to sense the direction of his thoughts, for he softened his tone considerably to ask, "Have you spoken to Father about allowing Jane to study the bifrost?"

"Not yet," Thor replied. "I fear he dislikes her."

"He doesn't," Loki assured him. "He's only been distracted by greater concerns of late. Now that things are settled, I'm sure he'll see in her what you do."

Thor could hardly believe his ears. Apologizing to Jane for his poor treatment of her was one thing. Praising her was quite another. "I thought you disliked her too."

Loki cast his eyes down. "I was being unfair. It was wrong."

Another time, hearing those words from his brother's mouth would have filled Thor with glee. Loki took such pleasure in pointing out Thor's shortcomings and it was a rare thing to turn the table on him. But this felt different. There was something in Loki's downcast eyes and hunched shoulders that made him look oddly vulnerable, and it left Thor feeling as though he'd seen something like it before.

"It's all in the past now, brother," he said instead of gloating. "Perhaps now that you are no longer bound by your research, you could join us on Midgard more often. Stark and the others have often asked after you."

"Perhaps," was all Loki said in reply, still not looking at him.

The feeling of familiarity with the way he was acting grew, and a very old memory surfaced in Thor's mind. One of the many times his younger and more inconsiderate self had abandoned his brother to spend time with other friends. At first, Loki had reacted much the same as he was now, poorly pretending not to be bothered by it, only to become bitter and angry underneath. Rather like how he'd been acting for much of the past year.

Thor reached over and clasped him by the back of the neck. "Loki, you know they will never replace you, don't you?"

"What are you talking about?" Loki scoffed, trying to worm his way free but Thor held him firm.

"However close I may grow to them, no one will ever take your place with me. No one ever could."

"I never thought-"

"Yes, you did," Thor said, shaking his head in disbelief that it took him so long to understand what was wrong. "You were here, preoccupied with your self-imposed quest, and I was only too happy to leave you to it while I had adventures of my own, without you. And then I acted as though the problem was entirely yours when that troubled you."

"Brother, I am no child," Loki insisted, though his almost petulant tone didn't help his argument. "I'm quite capable of functioning without your constant company."

"That's not the point."

"Then enlighten me, what is?"

Thor couldn't stifle the laugh that bubbled up his throat. That was so typical of his brother. Either Loki truly didn't know what he was getting at, or he was feigning ignorance because he didn't want to speak of it. Yes, that was Loki all right.

"Never mind," Thor said. He knew that whether Loki didn't understand or didn't want to understand, it would not help matters to force the issue. Maybe once they had some time to process things, it would be easier to get through to him. In the meantime, he asked, "What are you doing out here, if you are indeed _fine_ as you said?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "I was hoping for a little peace and quiet."

Thor resisted the urge to ask what peace and quiet Loki expected to find right outside the door of a noisy dinner gathering. "It has been a long few days, hasn't it?"

"More like a long year."

"True," Thor agreed. "If anyone has earned a rest, it's you."

"Then perhaps you should leave me to it, lest you find yourself turned into a frog as a result of your incessant nagging and have to spend the night in the pond in Mother's garden."

Thor smirked. "Again, you mean. You should really invest in learning some new tricks, brother. That one grows old."

Loki's face was the picture of innocence but for the glint of mischief in his eyes. "I wouldn't need to use it so often-"

" _Need?_ "

"-if you would only learn to stop pestering me."

Thor felt another laugh working its way out and he made no attempt to stifle it. Once it came out, he kept on laughing and before long, Loki was laughing too. It wasn't particularly funny but after so much friction between them, Thor had almost forgotten how much they used to enjoy each other. From the wistful sound of his brother's laugh, it sounded as though Loki had as well.

"I've missed this," he said.

"As have I," Loki agreed.

"Then why do you hide yourself out here?"

Loki shrugged and too casually said, "I'm afraid I'm not much for revelry tonight. I did almost die yesterday, remember?"

Though it was probably said in jest, it was an unwelcome reminder of the previous day's events to Thor. He would not soon forget the sight of Loki's ashen skin and lifeless eyes as he lay dying on the wastes of Svartalfheim. And no matter what light he made of it, Thor knew Loki was just as affected by it all.

"Are you sure you are well?" he asked, though he knew what Loki's answer would likely be.

"What did I just say about pestering me?" Loki returned, proving Thor's instinct correct.

"I didn't realize you find concern for your well-being so bothersome," Thor said, refusing to let Loki deflect.

His brother opened his mouth, another sarcastic retort ready on his tongue, but after looking Thor in the eye for a few moments, he appeared to think better of it.

"Thor, don't concern yourself overmuch. If I am not well yet, it is only a matter of time before I am. Time and _rest_." Loki spoke the last word with a rather pointed tone and equally pointed look.

"All right, brother. I'll leave you be." _For now_ , he added silently.

"Thank you," Loki said, visibly relieved. A little too relieved in fact.

It confirmed what Thor suspected, that there was something more going on to which Loki didn't want to admit, but as with Loki's feelings regarding Thor's relationship to the Midgardians, now was not the time to press things.

"Go, take your rest," he said. "Good night."

Loki nodded, his eyelids sinking to half-mast. "Good night, brother."

He started off for his rooms, leaving Thor behind outside the dining hall. As troubling as it was that his brother was still hiding something, it didn't stop Thor from feeling the satisfaction that came with still being able to say to him, "I'll see you in the morning."

~~~|~~~

_This is ludicrous,_ Loki thought.

For the past several hours, despite being exhausted beyond measure, he'd done nothing but toss and turn on his bed. With the Aether secure and the dark elves gone for good, he should have found easy rest.

Yet here he was, awake.

Not just awake, but awake with a mind that would not stop circling around thoughts of all that had happened, and an inexplicable feeling that in spite of their victory, all was still not right.

That sense of unease had plagued him ever since finding the Tesseract on Midgard. It grew worse as he learned more about the Aether and worse still as the Convergence approached. He'd hoped that it would leave him once everything was over but all that happened was it receded into the corners of his thoughts, lurking in the shadows like some sort of phantom that disappeared back into the darkness any time he tried to look closer at it. The feeling dogged him all evening and would not let up so he could rest.

Tired and frustrated, he cast off his bed covers and rose. Not even bothering to throw on a robe over his loose sleep clothes, Loki left his room to go for a walk. He wandered through the palace corridors, lost in his thoughts, until he found himself inside the library where he spent so many hours searching for clues about the Aether. Loki shook his head and gave a weary laugh. Apparently, he'd neglected to tell his feet that they no longer needed to bring him here every day.

The library was empty at such a late hour, with all its torches darkened except those by the entrance. It was such a clear night, though, that the moonlight streaming in made it almost as bright as daylight, and Loki found himself drawn to one of the windows. He scanned the night sky but all he saw were Asgard's familiar stars. The Convergence was well and truly passed, something that should have filled him with relief, but it didn't. 

A whisper of movement was the only sound that warned Loki that someone was approaching. He didn't need to turn to know it was Frigga.

"Stargazing again?" she asked.

"After a fashion."

She came to stand beside him, the soft white of her night dress and dressing gown fairly glowed in the moonlight. "Is that the only reason you're still awake at this hour?"

"I'm fine, Mother."

"Are you?" she pressed. "Don't think I didn't notice that you slinked away from dinner as early as you did."

"Of course you did," he said. "First, there was no slinking. I simply left. Second, if you were so concerned you should have spoken to Thor. He followed me out to ask me the same questions as you."

"And what did you tell him?"

"The same thing I told you, that I am fine. I don't know why no one wants to believe that."

From the corner of his eye, he saw his mother's lips part as if she was about to speak, but then she closed them without saying anything.

"Oh, and you'll not believe this," he went on. "Thor was convinced that the reason for my mood these past months was fear that he was replacing me with his Midgardian friends."

"Ah," Frigga said with a brief chuckle. "So he does know."

"Know what? Surely you don't think-"

"He's right," she told him plainly.

Aghast, he said, "What are you talking about?"

"This has happened before, my son. Do you not remember how you felt when you were too small to begin training with the arms masters at the same time as Thor, or when he first began to draw close to Sif, or when he would go off questing without you?"

Loki felt a flutter of embarrassment listening to her recount those long ago incidents. "Mother, I was a child. This is completely different."

"Is it?"

 _Yes,_ he wanted to say. _I was under enormous strain trying to avert a universe ending catastrophe while Thor kept running off to go play hero on Midgard._

Instead, like his mother moments before, Loki opened his mouth to speak only to close it without making a sound because he suddenly remembered his last conversation with his mother in this very room. A conversation in which he admitted to provoking Thor for no reason. He remembered a part of himself feeling horrified at hearing the way he derided Jane Foster and spewed other venomous words at his brother and being unable to stop even though he knew it would only drive Thor further away from him.

And he remembered a dozen other incidents similar to those his mother mentioned where he responded to Thor seeming to leave him behind by pushing him away, all the while terrified somewhere deep down that he might actually succeed.

The flutter of embarrassment grew into a hot wave of shame that Loki felt all the way from his scalp down to his toes. He winced and almost gave in to the urge to bury his face in his hands. At least the pale light of the moon would wash out the redness that he felt colouring his cheeks.

"Norns, you're right," he groaned. "What is wrong with me?"

"It's not that hard to understand, is it?"

Surprised by that, Loki opened his eyes and looked down to find his mother gazing at him with a bemused look.

"Oh, Loki," she sighed, reaching up to tuck a few stray hairs behind his ear before cradling his cheek in her hand. "How can you be so perceptive about everything but yourself?"

His mind went blank. He couldn't think of a single thing to say in response, but Frigga didn't seem to need one.

"My son, the first thing that happened to you in your life was you were abandoned by the very ones who should have cared for you most. They left you alone and frightened for goodness knows how long before your father found you. You don't remember it, not consciously, but it left a scar. I know, because I've seen it."

"What do you mean?"

A rather sad smile graced her lips. "For a start, when you were a baby, you would cling to us as though you thought we would vanish too if you let go. You stopped that by the time you were old enough to toddle but even then, you wouldn't fall asleep at night without one of us in the room with you. If we dared try and sneak out before you were asleep, you would start to cry. That's why you shared a room with Thor after you left the nursery. Having him close at night helped you get to sleep."

"You never told me any of that."

"Perhaps I should have," Frigga said. "I suppose as you grew older I wanted to believe that we had fixed whatever damage was done. And once we told you the truth of how you came to us... well, you were always so quick to pick up on everything. I thought you would come to understand on your own why you sometimes felt the way you did."

It certainly did explain some things, such as the irrational, almost fearful anger he often felt as a child when Thor did things without him, and why even as a grown man, he sometimes still felt it. In hindsight, it seemed so obvious that he agreed with his mother. He should have put it together himself much sooner.

"I feel like a fool," he admitted.

"You're not a fool, my dear," Frigga told him. "Just not as clever as you thought."

Loki laughed in spite of himself. "That's so much better, thank you."

"Oh, come now, darling. If not even Heimdall can see into a person's heart, you shouldn't expect to."

"Not even if it's my heart?"

"Not even then."

They shared a brief laugh together but right in the middle of it, Loki was caught by an unexpected swell of emotion. Standing there with his mother after she almost perished not even two days before, after he nearly died himself, after so much turmoil, just being able to share something so simple, so normal, was overwhelming.

Loki reached his arms around Frigga and pulled her into a tight embrace. He wanted to engrave everything about the moment on his memory; the softness of her dressing gown, the light scent of flowers that always seemed to linger in her hair, the feel of her breathing against his chest. He wanted to tell her how much he loved her, how frightened he'd been of losing her, how grateful he was that she lived, but all that came out was,

"Mother, I..."

As always, Frigga understood without needing to hear all the words, returning his embrace just as tightly. "I know, my boy. I know."

They stayed that way for some time, both reluctant to let go. When Loki at last broke the embrace, he felt no shame about the tears gathering in his eyes since Frigga's eyes were much the same.

"Now," she said, a slight waver in her voice but a smile on her face. "You may not be my little boy anymore but I am still your mother, so I'm still allowed to tell you it's high past your bedtime, young man. You need to get some sleep."

Loki nodded in agreement and Frigga turned to leave but he made no move to follow.

"Are you sure you're all right?" she asked him, the former lightness in her voice replaced by concern.

He was about to give her the same reply as before but he hesitated, instead turning his eyes back to the window to think. That uneasy feeling was still lingering in his thoughts, just as vague and nebulous as before. He found no answer for it gazing at the sky or anywhere else.

"I don't know," he said at last, not looking away from the window. "I may just be over tired. But if it proves to be something else, I'll tell you. 

"Is that a promise?"

"For you, of course," he replied, eyes still on the stars.

"Loki." Frigga raised her hand to his chin and gently turned his face to her. "Make sure you keep it."

Under her gaze, he was utterly powerless. It was as if she could see into every part of him, even that which he kept hidden from all other eyes. More than that, though, was the way it let Loki see into her. There was so much love there, and so much worry, the kind of worry that only one who is a parent truly knows. Worry for him.

His heart ached at the sight of it. He wanted with every fibre of his being to do whatever it took to ease it, which meant there was only one answer to give her.

"I will," he vowed. "I swear it."

Frigga held his gaze a few moments more before Loki saw some semblance of satisfaction in her eyes. "Good," she said with a slight smile. "Now, come."

Taking him by the hand, she began to lead him out of the library. Loki laughed to himself and let her do it, not even minding that it was exactly what she used to do to him when he was a child. Only a few days ago, he was sure he would never again have the chance to hold her hand or walk with her. He had no choice but to cherish every opportunity to do so after receiving such a brutal lesson in the fragility of life even in the mighty Realm Eternal.

Frigga took him all the way back to his rooms, saw him inside, and even made sure he returned to his bed. They said goodnight with one more lingering embrace. As she left, Loki noted with pleasant surprise that the nagging uneasiness had lessened in her company. It was not gone, but nor was it as bad as it was before.

 _Perhaps it really is nothing,_ he thought as he slid under his bed covers. Perhaps it was just a matter of how long he'd spent anticipating disaster. Now that the disaster had come and gone, his mind was just slow to adjust to not living under the threat of some impending doom. Perhaps he had to learn to just live again. After all, if a few minutes in his mother's company was enough to lessen much of his worry, who was to say that returning to his more normal routine might not erase it entirely.

 _That's probably a little optimistic._ Things were seldom that simple or that easy, and he was too pragmatic to think otherwise.

Not tonight though. Whatever the source of his disquiet, Loki resolved not to dwell on it any more tonight. Tonight he would let himself be content. The Convergence was passed, Malekith and his ilk were dead, and another infinity stone was in secure hands. Most important, the ones he loved most in the world were safe.

Yes, he was content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you may have noticed the chapter count on this story changed from 14 to 13. Just to explain, this chapter was always meant to be the end of the story. It's complete. Chapter 14 was going to be a sort of epilogue/tease for another story I'd like to do in this verse. The problem is, even after a year of thinking about it, I only have a general premise, which is dealing with Thanos and the infinity stones in some way. I have no story or plot to go along with it yet and I can't just do an AU of Infinity War like I could with The Dark World. So rather than tease you and leave you hanging for who knows how long, I'm just going to end it with the actual end. If I ever figure out how to do it and actually get to writing it, then I'll add the teaser to this. 
> 
> BTW, I don't think I've ever said this before but if anyone has any story ideas they'd like to share for this verse or any of my other stories, my tumblr ask box is always open. You can talk to me even if you don't have a tumblr account yourself.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think! And remember, you can always find me on tumblr [here](http://theclassicblunders.tumblr.com).


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